A Wolf and A Tiger
by Brago12716
Summary: Alyssa gets sent to the elemental nations and becomes Hinata in order to watch over the mask of Zen-Aku, but what happens when Naruto, the boy she has grown to love, finds it first and puts it on. One long ride that you do not want to miss. Naruto and Hinata will act ooc at times. Hinata/Alyssa-all three zord powers. Naruto-Zen-Aku powers. Good and protective Nine-tails.
1. The Start of a New Life

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 1

The Start of a New Life

The rangers have finally done it, they have defeated Master Org and finally ended their battles with him and his fellow orgs in order for them to gain control of the Earth through pollution and destruction, Master Org has finally been defeated. The Earth was free to rebuild what was damaged and create new life for the future, and it was all thanks to the power rangers wild force, those who harness the power of the animal kingdom to fight. None were happier then Merrick, the lunar wolf and sole member of the original team that defeated Master Org the first time, he was happy because they defeated the org this time without the use of a forbidden and dark power. Another miracle was born from this victory as well, Animus, the god-like ancestor of the wild megazord, he consisted of a dark lion, condor, saw shark, buffalo, and a jaguar wild zords, Animus was able to let his soul escape destruction and was now a spirit.

"It is good to see you rangers, thank you for defeating Master Org and restoring balance to the world," Animus thanked in his deep voice as he appeared to the rangers, well, actually he appeared in the sky through a spiritual window type deal, you know the kind.

"It was all in a day's work Animus, thank you for your help," Cole, the wild force red ranger, replied with a big smile and his standard childlike wonder in his eyes from his years in the jungle where he maintained his child-like innocents.

"Yes, thank you for all your help, but there is one last problem that must be dealt with at great speeds, Zen-Aku's mask, has been restored and is drawing those with weak spirits to it so that he can be free once again," Animus announced, and the others gasped.

"We can't let him escape, we barely defeated him last time, where's the mask and we'll destroy it and end his reign of terror once and for all," Merrick suggested and got nods from everyone except for Alyssa, the wild force white ranger.

"That cannot happen either, there must always be balance, and Zen-Aku is the last dark force in the entire world at the moment, there must always be a dark force from the Earth, it is a part of the balance that is key to the universe," Animus stated.

"Then we seal the mask away for good, we bury him under a mile of concrete in all direction so that he'll never get out," Taylor, the wild force yellow ranger, suggested with crossed arms and a scowl plastered on her face.

"That will not work either, those seeking power will still be in search for it and will eventually find it, and the new generation of power rangers may not be strong enough to fight him," Animus shot that plan down as well.

"You make it sound as though the situation is hopeless, is there anything we can do to prevent the destruction that Zen-Aku will cause if he gets free," Max, the wild force blue ranger, asked the great and powerful god-like megazord.

"There is a way to ensure the survival of the world and prevent the duke org from emerging, one of you must become the mask's guardian and be sent to a new land with the mask to ensure it is never used again," Animus announced to them. The reactions were varied, Merrick and Cole were shocked that is what it took to ensure the duke org never came back, Max and Danny, the wild force black ranger, were dumbfounded at the news and scared that they might be separated. Taylor was angry that Animus was going to have to send one of them to another land just to ensure the duke org never got out, and Princess Shayla was worried that Merrick might volunteer, she loved him even though she knew it was forbidden.

Alyssa was the one who had the calmest reaction though, she stood behind the others so they couldn't see her smile at this opportunity to travel to some great land, all she had to do was carry the mask with her, how hard could that be? She did have to get information about it first, "do you know what kind of land we will be sent to, or any detail about what will happen," she asked after she made sure her face was blank so the others wouldn't get any ideas about her.

"I do not know what kind of land you will be sent to, but I do know that it will be a tough land from the power the mask will naturally put into the portal, also, I regret to inform you that you will no longer have the form you do now. Your soul will be put into that of a newborn baby in that land, you will have all your memories so you will be able to train your body to how it is now, and you will have to search for the mask once you get there, it is one of the risks that accompany this mission. Once your body grows strong enough, somebody may have already found and put the mask on, so whoever goes needs to be prepared for that," Animus announced to the group, he saw them all hesitate, and he knew two that either wanted or needed to go. The one who wanted to go was Merrick in hopes to atone for his seemingly many sins, even if he has already done so in the eyes of the wild zords, but the one who needed to go was Alyssa, she alone had the fighting skill, stealth skill, and strength of heart to do this.

"I volunteer to go," Alyssa said before Merrick did, and boy was he about to, and secretly, princess Shayla was a bit relieved she did so that the lunar wolf could stay on earth with her, it was obvious to everyone except maybe Cole, Danny, and Max.

"You shouldn't be the one to go Alyssa, maybe someone else, you still have college and so much life ahead of you, I've lived a long enough life on this Earth, maybe I should go, I still have much to atone for," Merrick suggested with a grim frown.

"I think you've done enough to atone Merrick, besides, it might be best to be unpredictable when there is a chance that Zen-Aku will come out while whoever goes trains their body, and the best to go would be Alyssa," Taylor reasoned, which was a good point.

"Also, with her tiger style, she's probably the best fighter here, and wherever they end up, I know that she can adapt and add new knowledge into her arsenal," princess Shayla also reasoned, the points were good, and Merrick knew it, so he had no choice but to nod.

"Then it's settled Animus, I'll be the guardian over the mask and make sure that Zen-Aku never wakes from his slumber," Alyssa stated with determination in her eyes, this was her only chance to go on an adventure by herself to a land unknown.

"Very well Alyssa, but I should warn you that you may have a new personality, you may be shy or outgoing, you may be quiet or you may be loud, you may have a family that hates you, a family that loves you, or a family that ignores you in favor for siblings. With your kind and compassionate nature though, you may end up with everything you currently do, there is really no way of knowing though, say your final goodbyes so you may leave with no regrets," Animus advised.

"We already said our final goodbyes to each other before the final battle with Master Org, in case one of us didn't make it, so we all said everything before that," Cole said, but he still couldn't help himself from hugging her bye, as did everyone else.

"One last thing, I will put all the powers of your ranger form inside your soul, you will have the powers of your white tiger, elephant, and deer zords, this means that you will have a good act for healing others, a wonderful mind, and you will retain your noble heart. Are you ready," Animus saw her nod and gathered light around her and a random point across town, the rangers figured that was wear the mask was so they didn't think anything of it, they all waved goodbye to their friend that was going to a new land as a protector.

* * *

In the new land

The next thing that Alyssa knew, she was being pulled out of a dark tunnel and through a light, that light soon died down and soon she was able to tell that she had literally just came out of the womb of her new mother, and after everything was placed in her arms. 'Strange, I feel so warm and cozy here, I almost wish I never have to leave, but I know I need to,' Alyssa thought as she snuggled up to her new mother, she could relax a little since she was a baby right now, but knew she needed to get to work soon.

"She's beautiful, I'll name her Hinata, welcome to your life, Hinata Hyuga, my little princess," her mother cooed to the newly named Hinata, she liked the name as well, and couldn't wait to see what kind of world she was born into, and she hoped it was a good one.

It was a year later when she was over it, she found that she was born into a world filled with ninjas of some sort, her family was one of, if not the strongest clan in all of their village, the village hidden in the leaves, one of the five great ninja villages. Her father was the clan head, she was the oldest so she was the next head of the family, so her training to become the next family head would begin as soon as possible, so she was able to get stronger faster, only one problem. Their fighting style is different then what she's used to, her tiger style needed her to move around and be able to adapt to a change in position in an instant, which she was able to improve upon with the use of her new power, the byakugan. Even if she was one year old, when she was not being watched, she would practice her form the best she could at her age, but with the Hyuga style that they were using, this gentle fist style, they had to stand their ground more than move around. That was not her style, so she would need to adapt even more so than what she normally would and learn how to fit in here by reshaping her moves to be more like an unrelenting wall rather than a never settling tiger that can strike at a moment's notice.

It wasn't until she was two years old that she began her training for real, and boy did she train, the bodies of this realm were far stronger than those back on Earth so she was up and training in her tiger style sooner than she thought. Once she got a hold of a scroll containing some forms for the gentle fist is when her training got even more intense, she practiced for as long as she could as often as she could without anyone getting suspicious, her mother was a little concerned sometimes though.

She trained long and hard until the elders finally had her new father begin her training with the use of gentle fist style at three years old, but they didn't expect her to ever be much do to how she acted around others, she was sure to act shy and meek. The rest of her new and greatly extended family was full of stoic or scowling faces, they were all separate by one distinct mark on their foreheads, her father called it a caged bird seal, made to make sure the branch members of the family knew their place as servants. She was put as the heiress as the main household while her cousin one year older was put as heir to the branch household, at first he was kind to her, but after he got his caged bird seal is when he got less kind and more stoic like the others. So, her shy and meek nature was quite different from the other stoic and scowling faces of the rest of her family, and when she broke out into a stance they never saw anyone from the main house take, they gave even more of a scowl. When she beat her father, even if he was going greatly easy on her, everyone shouted out at her in outrage that it was not the style used by the members of the Hyuga clan, her father had a talk with her after that and said to use the gentle fist style from now on.

It wasn't until she was four years old that something happened, her village and another had been at war with one another, that war had came to an end and the two villages were to sign a peace treaty with one another. So, the top ninja from the other village, the village hidden in the clouds, came one day on her birthday to sign the peace treaty, only thing was that the night the ninja was to leave, he made a quick stop by the Hyuga compound to pick her up. This was not a good plan, not a good plan at all, because she was out practicing her pure gentle fist style with some of her tiger movements in them at random times, some kicks were put in at random times to make sure the invisible enemy was off balance. She had been practicing for a year since she won that farce of a fight against her father to see how skilled she was, they did make a comment that she was skilled, but needed to use their style, not her own, so she had been practicing for a year to make up for it. When the man came to kidnap her though, she still had her byakugan activated so she saw him coming, when he showed up, she hid in the shadows as best she could and struck in the second when he was surprised that she wasn't in her bed and got suspicious. He never saw the hand coming that paralyzed him with well placed jabs, as he fell to the ground, she yelled out for help and in came her father to see the scene before him, the ninja would be interrogated thoroughly and never heard from again. She was commended in taking out a higher-ranking ninja, getting a surprise attack on one is quite the achievement and not many could say they did that, but in truth, she just did what needed to be done, and that was it.

It wasn't until one and a half years later, when something else of import happened, her mother gave birth to another daughter, Hanabi Hyuga, our reincarnate was overjoyed to become a big sister, she was an only child in her old life and was thrilled to have a sibling. There is always tragedy though, their mother died in childbirth, shortly before getting to name her daughter, after that is when their father got colder and harsher in the training, not that it mattered to Alyssa/Hinata though. Her standard training got more intense as time passed, each day more grueling then the last, and it wasn't until her mother died when she was to the level of genin already, genin was the rank of a rookie in the ninja world.

It was at eight years old when one of the most important things to happen to a ninja in training happened, she was sent to the ninja academy, the school that taught you on how to be a ninja in this world, and it is on that day after school an event took place. It was a day with a rare snowfall with a fresh blanket of white powder on the ground, school had just let out and she was walking home when three older boys jumped her and started bullying, she was no pushover and knew that she could take them. Before she could however, a blonde-haired boy came out of nowhere and defended her, she was quite touched that someone else was like how she and the other rangers were before being sent here. The boy, of course, got the stuffing beat out of him for his efforts, but the boys that did so got a beating themselves in return as well, they fought back as meagerly as they could, but they were no match for her and soon found the realm of sleep far better at the moment. She checked on the boy and learned that his name was Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan that joined the ninja academy like her, when she asked why he had saved her, he said that it was the right thing to do, so why wouldn't he. She giggled at him at that statement, it was so much like her friends that it was a little creepy, that was the moment she developed a crush on the boy, but knew that at the moment she couldn't do anything about it, so she decided to make a friend instead.

They greeted each other daily after that, hung out during lunch and talked quite often during the next four years, it was at this time that they were all scheduled to take an exam to become genin, the lowest ranking ninja in the ranks. While working in class, she kept an ear out for anything on the mask of Zen-Aku, she also went to the local stores regularly to see what masks they sold, mask shops and such were also where she could be seen, but back to the exam. Hinata/Alyssa passed with flying colors, even called the teachers attention to a genjutsu, an illusion, that had been placed on Naruto's paper by one of the teachers that hated him, Naruto was given the correct paper and the teacher was reprimanded. One thing that Hinata/Alyssa never understood was how someone could be hated so much for something he has no control over, at one time she had asked her father why Naruto was hated in the village and was told that it was forbidden for him to tell her in any way. Luckily, she used her own powers of deduction thanks to her elephant zord's soul and found the answer when she realized that the day the fourth hokage, the leader of the village, defeated the nine-tailed fox was the same day as Naruto's birthday. She knew the truth after that, he was what was known as a jinchuriki, a living prison for a beast known as the nine-tailed fox, but she wondered why a man would put a newborn baby through all of that, why would such a seemingly great man do that. It wasn't until she finally found a picture of the fourth hokage, not just a stone face on a monument, when she figured it out, Naruto was his own son, so he wouldn't ask another father to do what he himself couldn't, but why wasn't Naruto told this.

It was the day of the graduation exam when she confronted the third hokage about it, she wanted to stay behind and comfort Naruto about how he failed the exam for the third time, but she knew this was also important, and so she walked into the hokage's office. He was sitting there and doing paperwork while smoking on a pipe, so when she walked into the office without an appointment, he didn't bother looking up as he was focused on what she had often heard him call the bane of all existence. "Lord Hokage, can I talk to you about something important," she asked and watched him almost jump, but that was just for show, she knew that he knew she was there from the beginning, he just wanted to seem like an old man losing his sense at times.

"Of course, young one, what can I do for you," the third hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, asked the young Hyuga, he made sure to note the seriousness of her tone of voice while also taking note that she was studying the room for something.

"I have two big questions, each one has a few sub questions that I would like answered, or at least given reason as to some things, but here is the first question, why haven't you told Naruto that he houses the nine-tailed fox," Hinata/Alyssa asked the old man.

Hiruzen remained as stoic as possible as he listened to the young girl, it was clear she cared deeply about Naruto, how deeply is what will be put to the test, "I haven't told him because he is not ready to know the truth, knowing could be a trigger for the fox's release."

"Now it's time for my sub questions then, why tell the villagers about him then, and then letting them beat him, chase him with weapons, almost kill him, why tell the villagers at all, that could have been a trigger as well," was her next question.

"The moment before his father died, he requested that Naruto be seen as a hero by the village, I told them in hopes that they would view him as someone protecting them from a great threat, not as an outlet for their anger, hence a law that was set forth," Hiruzen responded.

"Lot of good that did, did you not make your intentions clear about what you wanted, what the fourth wanted, or did you just think a group of people that just lost quite a bit would get your meaning," she asked again.

"In hindsight, it wasn't my smartest move, I don't believe it was my dumbest though, it may seem cruel of me to say this, but the village did need an outlet in some way, I just wish it didn't have to be Naruto," he replied as he took a puff of his pipe.

"Another thing you are forgetting is that you also put the students at the academy in danger by not telling him and letting everyone else think the fox was dead, what if an incident occurred where the seal was weakened and let the fox loose," she questioned.

"I had anbu stationed close to the school at all times and if such an incident did occur, then they were ordered to deal with it accordingly, I even made sure they were anbu who wouldn't kill him," Hiruzen replied back to her.

"When will you finally decide that Naruto is ready to know the truth, I know that if you explain the situation to him then the fox won't be released, he is the number one most unpredictable ninja after all," Hinata/Alyssa reasoned back.

"I was going to tell him when he made genin, I was even considering telling him even if he failed this exam, and there is a point to all this, he needs to show more maturity to the public before I tell him. I know that he has shared with you his actual nature, his true maturity, that's how close you are to one another, but I cannot tell him unless he shows the public that they aren't dealing with someone who would lash out at them, regardless of if they deserve it or not," he answered.

"On to my second main question, and I think you already know it, and I get why you haven't told Naruto that his father was the fourth hokage, the hidden stone would attack us or send assassins after Naruto, but why did you lie about his mother," she asked.

"That is quite complicated, you see, Kushina Uzumaki was his mother, but also the previous nine tails jinchuriki, only an Uzumaki can contain it, Kushina was a great kunoichi, one capable to go toe-to-toe with a kage, but that was the problem. The Uzumaki were known for this, and the hidden cloud had already made an attempt to capture her when she was young, that's actually how she and Minato fell in love, Minato saved her and said she liked her hair, it's quite the story. Anyway, if I told him or anyone who his parents were, then they'd be dead set on either killing him because of his father, or taking him away because of his mother, so I was left with only one option, tell him nothing and leave it at that," Hiruzen explained.

"I assume that both truths were under a secret rank where only you and the elders knew it even existed, well, the lineage at least, the fox was known by everyone but Naruto," she remarked with a scowl and hidden smirk, she knew an obvious secret.

"Yes, and now that you know it, you must keep this from him on pain of death, you must not ever let this information fall into his or anyone else's hands, knowing could mean his and everyone else's death," he ordered as he stared her down.

"You don't have to worry about me telling him, you already did, you can come in now," she called out randomly, the suddenly swung open to reveal a tear stained Naruto standing there and glaring at Hiruzen with red eyes with the pupil slit down the middle. What happened though, as Hinata/Alyssa was about to enter the office, she noticed Naruto about to sneak go in and talk with the hokage about something, so she told him to wait and wait there until he heard her call for him to enter, said it was important.

Naruto stood there and stared at the old man with a fierce glare until he did the unexpected, he put his hands into a seal and called out, "transform," before bursting into a cloud of smoke, when it died down is when things got strange. In Naruto's place was a very beautiful woman with long blonde hair in pigtails, that was all she had on, she was naked with only smoke covering her private forms, this just strangely added to her appeal. Hinata/Alyssa just turned tomato red and turned to see the hokage's reaction, he got a nose bleed so strong it knocked him out, when she turned back to ask why he did that, she was met with the form of a shirtless and grown up Naruto, she blacked out after that.


	2. How to Find a Mask

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 2

How to Find a Mask

The next time that Hinata/Alyssa woke up, it was while she was in her bed and under her covers, it took her a minute before she realized what had happened and how she was knocked out, Naruto used a jutsu to turn into a god in mortal flesh. She was getting overheated just thinking about what he looked like, so she tried to take her mind of it by looked out her window and saw that it was morning, if so then what happened with Naruto last night, what did he do, did he do something to the third hokage? She rushed out of bed and made her way out of the Hyuga compound as fast as she could and began speeding down the streets to reach the hokage's office, when she did, she was relieved to find him sitting there and doing paperwork.

"Aw, back to the land of the living I see, how was your night," Hiruzen asked the young Hyuga and prepared for the round of questions that were sure to come at any moment, and he just knew that the rest of the day was going to be a headache as well.

"Where is Naruto, what have you done with him," she demanded, she didn't think that he actually did something with Naruto, except maybe take him to a Yamanaka to get his memory of last night erased, or reconditioned or something.

"I did nothing to Naruto, normally when someone learns of top secret info such as what you and Naruto have learned, we send them to a Yamanaka to have their memory erased, but since what was learned is Naruto's business, he can keep his memory. It wouldn't do much good to send a Yamanaka in to do that anyways, the nine tails would reject the person and cast him out, the beast still has some power after all, including healing injuries to Naruto, but why should I let you keep your memories," he asked.

"Because Naruto needs a friend right now that can be trusted, and at the moment, you clearly do not fit into that category, he needs someone that he can talk to about this and someone who has known him for a while now," was her reply, and they both knew it was a good one.

"Very well, but let me set forth a condition, only Naruto can divulge as to whom he tells his secrets to, not you or anybody else can tell this secret, although I know you already know this, I have to say it anyways," Hiruzen replied as he took a puff of his pipe. She nodded in acceptance to this, it was only polite in regard to a secret, "now, on to better things, Naruto stole the scroll of seals because he was tricked by Mizuki into partaking a secret graduation exam, although I suspect he only did it to gain info on who Mizuki was working for. Naruto had some time to kill and decided to learn a jutsu from it, the shadow-clone jutsu, since the standard clone jutsu that the academy teaches takes chakra control that an Uzumaki like him with an abundance of chakra can't control. Iruka stumbled into this mess and found out about Mizuki's plan and after a confrontation that ended with Mizuki telling Naruto what he had just learned here, Iruka went ahead and promoted him to genin since Naruto proved that he could perform a clone jutsu."

"That's a lot to take in, but I guess it can't be helped I'll see him at the graduation orientation for team placement I suppose, goodbye lord hokage," Hinata/Alyssa stated before turning and walking out and back to the Hyuga compound. She still needed to get ready to take her shinobi registration photo, in a rush she came here in quite a mess, she still needed to shower and brush her long dark purple hair, her old brown hair looked good on her short, but she found she liked her hair longer with the dark purple. She, of course, wore her standard clothing, she wore her hidden leaf headband around her neck and made sure she plastered a smile on her phase for the photo and made sure she took it with as an elegant princess would, with grace and beauty.

She decided to wait until it was time for the team placement before she saw Naruto again, like she told the hokage, and decided to instead go to the different mask shops and see if they had a new shipment of wolf masks for her to go through. She had been asking the shop keepers to hold any new wolf masks they get in before putting them out for sale, of course, they didn't do this for free, so she offered a deal, hold them off and she wouldn't break every bone in their body. She hated to have to force it like that, but she was starting to worry, the mask shop owners all had a system in place where all of them talk to one another, from every village and roadside stand in the ninja world, so she had them all keep their feelers out for a wolf mask. As of now, she had gone through hundreds of wolf masks with not one of them being the one that hold Zen-Aku, and she hasn't gotten wind of any reports involving a monster humanoid wolf yet, so the mask has either yet to have been found, or he's laying low.

When the day finally arrived for team placements, she was sure to come in as quietly as possible, like she always does, and then Naruto came in quietly as well, which was strange for him, and set down next to her as he always does at this time. "Hey, Hinata, thanks for getting the old man to tell me the truth, even if he didn't know he was, and thanks for telling me the truth, indirectly, I mean," Naruto whispered to her.

"You're welcome Naruto, I didn't think it was right for him to keep that from you, it doesn't matter the reason, a child should know who his parents were, and thank you for being understanding about all of this," Hinata whispered back to him and he nodded.

He looked to be about to say something when Shikamaru walked by and spotted him, "huh, what are you doing here Naruto, this isn't for dropouts, you can't be here unless you graduate."

"Oh yeah, do you see this, do you see this, open your eyes Shikamaru, it's a regulation headband, we're going to be training together, how do you like that," Naruto said in a childish way, didn't want to let them know that he wasn't actually an idiot.

A huge stomping of feat was then heard coming for the door, and soon came in Sakura and Ino, they were both shoving one another in an attempt to get inside the classroom first, then they started to argue about who got inside first. That was before they began to argue about who was going to sit next to the resident brooder of the class, Sasuke, the person who was the lone survivor against a massacre that her elephant brain was saying wasn't as it seemed. Probably a conspiracy by the elders of the leaf to force Itachi, the one who committed such an act, out of the village while getting rid of all other Uchiha other than his younger, not as skilled by a long shot, brother who had an infirmity complex.

Both Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto hated Sasuke, his only drive was to kill his brother, they had both met him before when Sasuke was being picked up by Itachi, they got to know him and knew that out of everyone else, he was best suited to be hokage, even Naruto agreed to that. Of course, the rest of the class didn't agree, the girl side at least, they all had a burning desire to be with the brooder any way possible, while the boys hated him for either stealing all the girls, or hated him because he brought the mood in the room down very low.

They had mixed feelings about the rest of the class, Sakura was kind and sweet when she wanted to be, but had a temper and a set of lungs like a banshee, while Ino was almost just like her except Ino loved flowers and such with sass that put people off. Shino was quiet and hardly ever said a word to anyone, but they knew that him and his family had a thing for bugs so that was most people's focus and shut them down from ever speaking to him, Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto were not most people and talked regularly with him. Kiba was a wannabe alpha male that held no trace of alpha anywhere near him, but his boasting about it puts him more towards a certain category that had two banshees and a brooder in it. Shikamaru was smart for his age, actually, he was just smart in general that was just as lazy, his drive to become a ninja was most likely to do whatever he wanted, not all that bad, but what he wanted was to just watch clouds all day. Choji was a kid with a good heart, well, a heart full of high cholesterol if all the salty chips and very unhealthy sweats that he eats is anything to go by, but he doesn't like to fight unless angry and then he becomes an absolute beast at that point.

Soon Iruka came into the class and everyone went to their seats that were up and about before he began to speak, "as of today, you are all ninjas, to get here, you faced difficult trials and hardships, but that's nothing, what comes next will be far more difficult. Now you're only genin, first level ninjas, all the genin will be grouped into three-man squads, each squad will be led by a jounin, an elite ninja, and we want each squad to have a balance of strengths and abilities, so that's how we set them up. I will now announce the squads," the two stopped paying attention after that until they heard one of their names called, and guess who that is, "squad seven, Naruto Uzumaki. Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha."

"Great, I get the amazing brooder and the banshee, I hope you at least get someone on a good side," Naruto whispered to Hinata/Alyssa who nodded, he was going to have a busted ear drum for sure the next time they met in her opinion.

"Next, squad eight, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame," Iruka announced again, Kiba smirked in self satisfaction while Shino adjusted his glasses, there goes that hope down the drain, Shino was fine, but Kiba was more trouble than he's worth. "Now, squad ten, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi," the teacher announced, well, at least with that group it was two against one, but that one was another banshee, at this rate, everybody from Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto's friends were going to be deaf.

"Iruka sensei, why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke," Naruto asked, he knew the reason of course, but he still had to keep up the appearance of the idiot that everyone expects from him.

"Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduation students, Naruto, you had the worst scores, to create a balanced group, we put the best student with the worst student," Iruka informed, that wasn't the real reason of course, not the main one anyways. The real reason was because of Sasuke's sharingan, it can control the nine-tailed fox, even though Sasuke hasn't activated it yet, he'll still need to be on the same team for when he does activate it and needs to control Naruto. "After lunch, you'll meet your new jounin teachers, until then, class dismissed," the teacher announced, and of course Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto went off on their own to eat lunch alone while everyone else ate alone or in pairs. Afterwards they all returned to the classroom where each and jounin came in and took the groups away, and off to introduce themselves to one another, and once that was done they went off on their own again.

Hinata/Alyssa waited until after Naruto was done with his talk with his jounin sensei before they met up at a ramen stand named Ichiraku ramen where they talked about their jounin sensei's, and boy did they have much to talk about. Naruto's jounin sensei was his father's old student, Kakashi Hatake, known as the copy ninja because of his use of a sharingan to copy over a thousand jutsus with only one being his own originally made jutsu. Hinata/Alyssa's jounin sensei, Kurenai Yuhi, was new to the jounin scene but was rumored to be a genjutsu specialist, rumored to only be surpassed by Itachi Uchiha himself, that in of itself sung to her praises about her abilities. They both had quirks though, Kakashi seemed to be the lazy type while Kurenai seemed to hate all men because she saw them as nothing but perverts, both were said to be powerful though, so the quirks were put up with. Naruto told about how his sensei said not to eat breakfast for their survival test while Hinata/Alyssa was told the same thing, it was obviously a test on teamwork, only problem was how to get their team to work with one another.

The next day when they met up after their survival training is when they told each other what their survival test entailed, Naruto's was more focused on getting bells from his sensei by the use of teamwork, making their assumption true, they were an attack team. Hinata/Alyssa's was more focused on finding their sensei through their teamwork, they were obviously set up as a tracking team, with combat abilities of course, but mainly going to be used for tracking missions once they get out of D-rank missions, or chores if you prefer. When they weren't going on missions, they used their free time to train or get ramen together, the training was done individually as to surprise the other when they fought the other or together, the ramen was actually done together though.

It was a month later before either one of them ever went on a C-ranked mission, it was Naruto who went on the mission, he was to escort a bridge builder to his home village to build a bridge, it turned from C to A rank when a missing ninja by the name of Zabuza and his apprentice Haku showed up though. Naruto confirmed that they both died in battle and inspired him in the way of ninja, and it took another month before they came back after the bridge was complete, and they were right on time.

They were right on time for the chunin exams, exams that were to be had for genin to be promoted to chunin, the next rank for one to achieve in their ninja career, so it was a big deal. Ninja from other villages were coming in as well, Naruto even had a run in with three of these ninja, a blonde-haired girl, a makeup wearing boy, and another jinchuriki, the host of the one tailed sand spirit Shukaku, Gaara of the sand. Naruto even let his mask slip a little bit and show off his true side when one of them threatened someone still in the academy, the meeting let others see him like no one had ever seen Naruto behave before.

"I said put him down, now," Naruto said calmly as he turned his eyes to red with slit pupils, the one holding the little kid, Kankuro, let him go once he saw those eyes, they seemed familiar to him, and Naruto saw this before sensing something in the trees. He turned and saw Sasuke sitting on a branch and about to throw a pebble when he saw what was happening then he turned his head slightly to see someone standing upside down on a branch. "Nice to meet you mister one, you can call me mister nine if that makes things clear as to who you're messing with," Naruto introduced himself to the boy named Gaara, Gaara immediately got the picture because his eyes got wide and jumped down to beside his siblings.

"We're leaving, we don't need to bother with these people right now, let's go," Gaara said in a stoic and emotionless voice as he and the siblings began to walk away, nobody seemed to notice the slight fear in his eyes though, except for Naruto.

That was what happened, and Naruto was beating himself up for it when Hinata/Alyssa found him at Ichiraku ramen that night after she was informed of the chunin exams herself by her own sensei, her team immediately decided to enter it, they were ready. "I heard about what happened, how are you holding up," she asked as she took the seat right next to him and ordered some miso ramen, the same thing he was having.

"I'm doing good, just beating myself up a little for letting my mask slip, also thinking about maybe just letting it come down all together," Naruto informed her, which was probably for the best, the chunin exams will bring it all out anyways.

"I think you should let those masks of yours come down, I'm tired of not defending you when I hear your other team members come in and start talking about how dumb you are," Teuchi, the owner and head chef at Ichiraku ramen.

"Maybe we should, with the opponents getting stronger, the less likely they are going to underestimate us just because we act timid or foolish, I think it's time we dropped the act," Hinata/Alyssa suggested as well.

"That's too bad, I was beginning to like orange, but the safety of the team and the rest of my friends are going to have to take priority over everything else, let's do it," Naruto said with a smirk, who knows, it might be nice to see him in anything but neon orange.

* * *

Chunin exam test day 1

Hinata/Alyssa made her way with the rest of her team to the room where they would need to wait until the proctor came to deliver the first part of the exam, and they made sure to pass the mess with the genjutsu on the door to weed out the weak ones. When they got to the door, they were greeted by their sensei Kurenai, she explained that this was an individual choice that effects all of the squad, another speech about teamwork, and then they were able to enter into the room where a mass of genin greeted them. They waited a little while before they heard a commotion by the front door and turned to see that Naruto had arrived, and boy did he look different, hot to Hinata/Alyssa, just plain wrong to those who were used to see him in an orange jumpsuit.

Naruto now wore a deep red, almost black, pants stuffed inside of black combat boots, over his torso he wore a black, long sleeve shirt with a line in the same color red going down his center with the sleeves tucked inside black gauntlet-like gloves with a black headband on his forehead. Some of the ladies in the room turned to look at him as well and noticed that he looked quite hot, Hinata/Alyssa noticed the stares and glared at them as if to say back off, it didn't seem to work. Team eight kept walking up to team seven and steam ten in time to see Naruto turn to them, so Kiba decided to speak, "well, what do you know, it looks like the whole gang's back together again."

"Hi Naruto, I didn't think you'd choose that outfit for your debut attire, you clean up well," Hinata/Alyssa said as she got closer than the other girls in the room that didn't know Naruto were comfortable with, which was most actually.

"I don't know what's gotten in to him, but when we were confronted by a guy in a green body suit, he pointed out that we shouldn't be fighting before the exam, that it would be a waste to show our skills to one another before the battle portion," Sakura mentioned.

"Yeah, what happened to you loser, you think dressing different will make us see you as something more than what you are, you're still a loser that can't stack up to me," Sasuke goaded, he seamed to be testing Naruto to see if he actually has changed.

Naruto wasn't even paying attention to what they were saying, he was too busy staring at Hinata/Alyssa at how she changed her own look, she now just had on a smaller version of what she wore when she was unmorphed as a ranger back on Earth. Even in a younger body, she felt a small deal of satisfaction at being able to turn the head of a guy that she liked, and she was by no means a girl that loved attention, but coming from Naruto, she loved it.

"Huh, you say something," Naruto asked the two after he realized he was staring at her and someone had just asked him a question, the blank look on his face didn't help the projection of idiot in orange that he was trying to get rid of.

"Hey, Naruto, stop ogling my teammate with that dumb look on your face, or I'll make you," Kiba yelled out and got more attention on them then needed, and boy was there already eyes on all of them, they were the rookies in the exams after all.

"Back off Kiba, I don't mind him looking," Hinata/Alyssa said quietly with a blush that got Naruto's attention, he was sure going to tease her about it later on, but wasn't gong to now, it was serious time for right now, but not for long.

"Well, I do mind, if he's going to keep ogling you, he should do something about it, what are you going to do, huh, what are you going to do," Kiba exclaimed again and got in Naruto's face this time, some people didn't know when to quit.

Luckily, before Naruto could answer to the challenge, they were saved by someone named Kabuto Yakushi, while the others were talking to him, Naruto and Hinata/Alyssa were standing a little bit behind the group and talked quietly to each other. "Sorry about staring at you earlier, I just didn't expect you to come out swinging with that outfit, where did you even get that anyways," Naruto asked, anything to avoid looking at how beautiful he thought she looked.

"I made it, I'm handy with sowing and housework and such, I figured that if we're going to come out as our true selves, we should come out in what we're both comfortable in, but also what works," and she meant it, it also helped that she liked her old ranger uniform.

Naruto then spotted someone that caught his eye and nudged Hinata and pointed to who he saw, it was his fellow jinchuriki, Gaara of the sand, Naruto got a smile plastered on his face and the both of them went over to where the other jinchuriki was. From all the stares that the two were receiving though, she hooked her arm with his for comfort, "hello mister one, I hope that your stay in the village is going good, wouldn't want your stay to be any less than hospitable in a foreign village," Naruto said quietly.

"My stay has been fine mister nine, but my siblings don't know about the mister numbers part, I ask that you please don't mention the meaning of it," Gaara asked, his sibling couldn't believe it, he actually asked instead of threatened, it was funny to see.

"Of course, then I guess I should introduce myself then, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the leaf's most unpredictable ninja, this here is Hinata Hyuga, unrelenting tiger of the leaf, nice to meat you, Gaara of the sand," Naruto introduced them with a bow each.

"Likewise, these are my siblings, Temari and Kankuro, Kankuro is the one that had your fiend by his neck the other day while Temari is our sister," Gaara introduced his siblings who bowed as well as him to the two others.

Naruto heard a commotion coming from where the others were and saw that a guy from the sound village had just attacked that guy named Kabuto who was talking to the other rookies, it was clear that it was a sound based attack, which is why Kabuto fell apart. Hinata/Alyssa took a look around and saw that none of the other genin from the rest of the villages were looking at them, probably haven't for a while now, too focused on what the other rookies were doing to keep track of the smarter genin.

While the others were trying to figure it out, a smoke bomb erupted from the front of the class and out came a man in a black over coat saying, "all right, you baby face degenerates, pipe down and listen up, it's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Marino, your proctor, and from this moment, your worst enemy, now first, you candidates from the village hidden in the sound, knock it off, who told you could fight, you want to be failed before we've even begun?"

"Sorry, it's our first time, I guess we're a little bit jumpy, sir," the sound ninja said, you could hear the mimicry of sincerity in his voice though, it was clear that he didn't care about what he just did, it wasn't even a question if he did or not.

"Hmph, I'll say this once, so listen up, there will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor, and even than the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately, got it," Ibiki announced and nobody dared to say a word, "now, if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the chunin exam, hand over your paperwork, in return you'll each be given a number. This number determines where you will sit, we'll start the written test once you're all seated," everyone did as they were told and after a few fast calculations, Naruto and Hinata/Alyssa were able to get seat next to one another and away from the other members of their team. Ibiki tapped a piece of chalk against the chalk board, "eyes front, there are a few rules you need to be aware of, and I won't answer any questions, so you better pay attention the first time around. All right, rule number one is this, the written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system, and contrary to what some of you may be used to, you all begin the test with a perfect score of 10 points and one point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. Rule number two, teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members, and rule number three is the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating and for every incident they spot, they will subtract two from the culprit's score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp, and if they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored, anyone foolish enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi, then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be, and one more thing, if any candidate should get a 0 and fail the test, then the entire team fails. The final question won't be given out until 15 minutes before the end of the testing period, you'll have one-hour total," after a few ticks of the clock in the room Ibiki yelled out, "begin!"

Hinata/Alyssa and Naruto understood what the underlining meaning was, you can cheat as much as you want as long as you don't get caught, or you can answer all the questions as long as you know the answers. Meaning that the true meaning behind this test wasn't a written exam, it was information gathering, either use the information you've obtained up to that point to answer, or gather information on the fly from those that are probably in the audience that know the answers. Luckily for the two of them, they hid their true potential up till now, the keen observers could spot a byakugan activating easily, but they couldn't spot an elephant that was thinking, oh how she loved her animal spirits inside her soul. He went for a different approach, before the exam, he made sure to make a few shadow clones and hid them above them in the ceiling, mainly was going to be used for recon, but he kept them there after the rules were announced, they'd be put to some good use now.

After everything was done and over with and all the weak ones were weeded out, it was time for Ibiki to announce the final question, "all right, listen up, here's the 10th and final question, but before I give you the question, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of. These rules are unique to question 10, listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you, so rule number one, each of you are free to choose not to be given the final question, it's your decision."

"Whoa, so what's the catch, let's say we decide we don't want to do it, what happens then," Temari asked out loud, it was a valid question, but the answer to that was obvious.

"If you choose not to take the 10th question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero, in other words, you fail, and that means that both of your teammates fail as well," after that was all kinds of whispers about taking the question. "Not so fast, you didn't let me finish, if you do accept the question but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail, you will be barred from taking the chunin exam ever again," with that announcement let loose the dogs of war.

"Hey, that's bull man, that's ridiculous, what kind of bogus rule is that, there's lots of people her who've taken the test before," Kiba pointed out, quite stupidly so, of course they change the rules each exam.

Ibiki began to laugh a little before he began to speak, "I guess you're just unlucky, I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now, of course, if you don't want to take it, you don't have to, if you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can come back and try again next year, but for now, if you're ready, the 10th and final question, those who don't want to take it, raise your hand, your number will be recorded and then you're free to go," a few people raised their hands and got out. "For those of you who are left, I admire your determination, if nothing else, but there is still one thing remaining to do, and that's for me to tell you that you've all passed the first exam," then he went on to explain the purpose of the first exam.

After the explanation, came an entrance that nobody would have expected, a big ball of fabric came in through the window to the room and out from it came kunai to hold up a sign and a woman with purple hair wearing a trench coat over mesh attire. "Heads up boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating, I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi, ready for the second test, good then let's go, follow me," came her screaming voice.

"Is there anyone in this village that isn't crazy, I feel like everyone I meet is crazy, do you get that feeling as well," Hinata/Alyssa whispered to Naruto, he nodded and was about to whisper back when they were told to shut up and their squad leaders would let them know where to go in the morning.

* * *

The next morning

The next morning found all teams standing in front of a forest surrounded by a gate, "this is the location for the second phase of the exam, it's the 44th battle training zone, but we call it the forest of death," Anko announced to everyone who was gathered.

'It looks a bit creepy, but I can handle it, I've got the soul of a tiger, an elephant, and a dear inside of me, with those three, I can get through this, though, I'm concerned about Naruto,' Hinata/Alyssa thought as she noticed him swallow a little bit. She went over and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "don't worry Naruto, I'm sure that your team will get through this, just keep your guard up and don't bring it down for anything," she advised.

Naruto took a deep breath, her words always seemed to bring up his mood whenever he was down, "thanks, you always know what to say to help calm my nerves, thanks," he said with a nice and warm smile that always sent her heart a flutter.

"Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all, just a standard consent form, before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form and sign it, some of you will die so I need your consent for that risk," Anko said with an evil grin. She handed it to a random person who began to pass around the form before going on to explain the terrain of the field they'll be entering in, and then telling them that they must all fight while within the hostile terrain to get one of two scrolls, a heaven and earth scroll. Each team filled out their forms and got in line to get their scroll, both team 7 and 8 got heaven scrolls, and that's what Hinata/Alyssa passed onto Naruto when she used her byakugan to see what they had, so she knew she wouldn't have to fight him. After that, they made their way to a gate each and waited for time to begin, team 8 was at gate 16 and team 7 was at gate 12, and after waiting for thirty minutes, the second exam for the chunin exam had finally begun.

It was maybe less than an hour before team 8 were almost attacked by some waterfall genin, but they had set a trap using leaches to get the drop on them before they could, so they were able to get their scroll, and luckily for them, it was an earth scroll. They headed out and to the tower as fast as they could, but for a moment, they were forced to stop as they watched a fight between Gaara and some rain genin, it was a slaughter, the rain ninja didn't stand a chance. When Gaara lifted the ninja and crushed them with his sand is when they all knew this guy is way over the limit of what they can do, well, Kiba and Shino, but Hinata/Alyssa would have to go all out and tap into all three of her wild zords to be able to fight him. Gaara obviously noticed them so she was sure to whisper, "number nine," and that made him halt any actual assault that he would have made on them, his siblings thought it was because they asked nicely though, but that didn't matter as long as they survived.

They soon were on their way and didn't look back, Akamaru was still shaken up though, but as long as Gaara knew to not kill them at that moment, the dog would get over it and they can get back to the exam. They made it to the tower and met the first team to arrive, there, Gaara and his siblings, so they waited until the other teams made it back in, one was team 10, another was the sound ninja, team 9, some leaf ninja that they never saw before, and last was team 7.

Hinata/Alyssa was so happy that Naruto made it in time that she ran up to him jumped in his arms in a hug, but something was off, there was a transformation jutsu around him, no only that, but it was a powerful transformation jutsu to cover something big. "Naruto, why is there a transformation jutsu on you, what happened while you were out there," she asked him quietly before he looked around to see if anyone was around, he decided to many people were in the room, so he took her into the hallway to talk.

"Listen Hinata, I did something and now I look marginally different then what you're used to," Naruto started to explain and stopped to pause and look around one more time before he began his tale of what happened.

* * *

Flashback

Naruto had just been released from a giant snake that had eaten him and was about to look for his teammates when he noticed something, there was a mask on the ground that had a design like a wolf on it, but it felt off somehow, it felt powerful. He went over to pick it up and found a pull on his being to put the mask on, almost as if it was hypnotizing him, without really thinking about it, he put the mask on and felt as if his head was slammed into a brick wall before blacking out.

The next time he woke up, he was in a large chamber in a sewer, everything had a creepy aura around it and one wall wasn't even a wall, it was a cage of some sort, with red bars that looked to be able to hold something big inside of it. "I'm pretty sure that I'm not supposed to be here, but I think this is my mental landscape, always pictured a forest and not a sewer, what does that say about me," Naruto asked himself out loud before a deep rumbling was heard all throughout the chamber.

"I see that you've finally decided to visit me, good to see you're accepting your role as a jinchuriki and not moping about," a deep voice said from within the cage, two red eyes with a slit in its pupils came into view and blinked at him.

"I didn't really mean to, I was taking part in the second round of the chunin exams when I found this wolf mask and put it on, then I was dragged in here, what's going on nine-tails," Naruto asked the fox, the fox stepped out of the shadows and presented his full form.

"That explains why that guy is here," the fox said before pointing to the new soul in Naruto's body, it was a humanoid wolf in all black, he had amber eyes and a single horn on his head with silver hair coming out form a wolf-like mask, "who are you stranger?"

"This is strange, usually when someone puts on the mask, I take over their body rather quickly, not pulled into their mental landscape, and not ever have they had another soul already in them, that complicates things," the stranger commented as he looked around.

"The fox asked you a question, and since you just said you came from the mask, I assume the mask was cursed with a wolf spirit of some kind inside of it, just my luck to be possessed by a freaking ghost," Naruto said as he sighed in exasperation.

"Not a spirit, well, not entirely, I am a duke org, a type of monster, my kind usually go around and try to conquer the earth through pollution and destruction, my name is Zen-Aku, what are your names," Zen-Aku introduced himself with a small bow.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, the number one most unpredictable ninja that is currently in existence, that is the nine-tailed fox, a tailed beast with the power to level mountain ranges, now leave my mind and go back to your mask," Naruto ordered.

"I cannot, the only way for someone to remove the mask is to defeat my physical form, not this mental projection that I am now, but when there are more than two souls that are inside the host, we become unstable and are not able to move freely," Zen-Aku stated.

"That complicates things, the current host is currently in a test where his life is on the line, if we do not figure a way out of this soon, he will die and you may be killed as well, or would you be sent back to the mask," the nine tails asked.

"I have never had a host die on me before, I am too strong to be killed is mainly the reason for that, and I've never really had this problem before, so I do not know if I will be killed as well, or be sent back to the mask," Zen-Aku answered truthfully.

"Nine tails, do you know of any jutsu or power that you have that will let him return to his mask, or at least let us move around," Naruto asked, it was logical considering he was the oldest being he knew of, and so he should know something.

"Let me think for a little bit, in the meantime, Zen-Aku, why don't you go through his memories and see just who you walked into, it'll take a little bit to think up how to get out of this mess, and call me by my name, Kurama," Kurama said as he retreated into his cell.

"Well, I might as well see that, might give me something to do while we wait for him, want to help guide me through, or do you want to sit and do nothing," Zen-Aku offered, he was a bit weirded out about what was going on, but wouldn't show it.

"You go on, some of those things I would prefer not to relive if I can help it, I'll just sit and meditate, when you can take all you can stomach, I think it'll be alright if you come back and puke a little bit, just not too much," Naruto said cryptically before he got into a meditative position.

Zen-Aku said nothing as he walked through a wall and went in search of the memories of his host, and he must have spent close to an hour seeing memories for as long as he could stomach all the hate and animosity towards a child he could bare. When he walked back in he said nothing and just looked at the boy in sadness and pity before focusing on the task at hand, "has Kurama found anything that could help us, or must we wait for a longer period of time."

"I've been waiting for you to come back, I see you're playing the tough guy act, but fine, I think I've found a way out of this mess, only question is, would you two be willing to do it, and before you two ask, you would have to merge fully for this to work," Kurama informed.

"You mean that I'll have to spend the rest of my life as a wolf-man," Naruto asked the fox with a raised eyebrow while pointing to the duke org, who was currently looking a little pale at the idea of becoming a kid in a village that hated a child like that.

"Yes, maybe, you'll have one of your personalities, one of your appearances appearance, all the memories from both parties, and you'll have the added bonus of having access to both sets of powers at will, or we could spend the rest of our lives stuck as a statue," Kurama suggested.

"Well when, I think we should merge, if we stay stuck as a statue, we'll starve pretty quickly after that, or animals could come eat us for food, or enemy ninja come and kill us because they can," Naruto listed off the reasons.

"There is also the advantages beyond the trial, with your ability to copy yourself, my natural skill and strength, and access to Kurama's power, we'd be unstoppable, even be able to become that hokage that you used to look up to," Zen-Aku mentioned.

"Then I'll prepare the ritual of shared consciousness," Kurama stated before he began to do some things inside of the cage, at the end of everything, the two was merged as one with a personality close to Naruto and appearance of Zen-Aku with powers of both.

* * *

Flashback end

"That's basically everything, other than me taking on Orochimaru before he put an odd number seal on top of the even seal that sealed the nine tails inside of me, I've had a rather uneventful time, what about you," Naruto/Zen-Aku asked Hinata/Alyssa.

"So, should I still call you Naruto, or should I call you something else," she asked before mentally kicking everyone for not asking her what she preferred to be called, and for failing her mission, but should have known the best way to find the mask was to send Naruto after it.

"I guess the best thing to call me is Zen-Aku Uzumaki, I need to honor both aspects of myself, both the duke org and the Uzumaki side, and why are you wearing what the white ranger used to wear," Zen-Aku asked with narrowed eyes.

"Then I guess we should be honest with one another, Animus sent me here to watch over the mask and make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands, I was the former white tiger ranger, so now, you can call me Alyssa Hyuga," Alyssa introduced herself.

"What do we do now, I don't want to fight you, and I'm not sure if you can beat me, or if I can beat you," he asked her as he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms as if he was thinking all cool like, which made her want to giggle a little bit.

"I don't want to fight you either, I liked Naruto and I was actually fine with Zen-Aku, he was the most honorable of all the orgs that we fought, to have Naruto's personality with Zen-Aku's appearance, it makes me curious to see how you look now. However, it also terrifies me that someone with the duke org's strength now has access to the nine tails, while also knowing how the rest of his kind was, but as long as your personality is still the dominate one, I'm fine with not fighting you," she admitted.

"What about something else, maybe something more than just friends," Zen-Aku said as he got off the wall and stood in front of her and looked her in the eyes, "maybe something new to the both of us," he said softly as he leaned in. Alyssa's eyes widened a little bit, she always wanted a relationship with Naruto, he was kind and sweet and showed her a will to never give up beyond anything she had ever seen, even more than her friends, this is what she wanted, what she desired. It felt so right, that is why she leaned into what was happening as well, they were both so close to each other, the heat could be felt from the other one and providing each other with warmth as they were getting closer, and just as their lips were about to meet…


	3. A Wolf Comes Out

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 3

A Wolf Comes Out

Just as their lips were about to meet, "hey, wolf boy, Hyuga, you do know we're waiting on the both of you to begin, right," the voice of Anko came in beside of them, they jumped and turned to see said woman just standing there with arms crossed and looking on impatiently. They blushed a deep red, Zen-Aku rubbed the back of his furry head while Alyssa bowed her head and found messing with her fingers was a good idea, "I heard everything, be sure to keep that Naruto form, and get in there with the rest of your squads." Zen-Aku made sure to he was keeping his Naruto transformation before him and Alyssa walked back into the area where the other genin and the hokage and the jonin senseis and the chunin exam proctors were all waiting for the two of them.

Each genin squad was lined up in front of the hokage, starting with team 10, team 8, team 7, team 9, Kabuto's team, sand siblings team, and finally the sound ninja team, the jonin senseis were behind the hokage, Orochimaru, Bakin, Kurenai, Guy, Kakashi, Asuma, and another sensei.

"Glad to see you two could join us, is there a reason that you two were out in the hallway for so long," Hiruzen asked the two of them, Naruto was still mad at the hokage so he just looked away stubbornly, Hinata, who was also upset with him, looked away as well.

"They were talking about something and then about to make out," Anko announced out loud with no shame at all, everyone looked at the two of them who moved to the back of their squads since they came in late and everyone was already in position.

"You mean that while we've been here waiting for the two of you, you've been out having a make out session with someone who's currently the enemy," Sakura seethed and would have tried to hit him, if not for the hokage watching them, she would have.

"I don't see what the problem is, more than one person can become a chunin during this thing, including the other genin from the other villages, so nobody here is actually an enemy, they're fellow examinees, not enemies," Naruto told her with a small glare.

"Enough talk, first of all, congratulations on finishing the second exam, now pay attention, lord hokage is going to explain the third exam to you, and you better listen carefully maggots," Anko ordered them all, before the third hokage stepped forward. Then came a speech about inter village cooperation, how it was made to show off their individual abilities and what each village's strength was using what they know and what they can all do, the same thing that Zen-Aku and Alyssa already concluded.

Then came in a random chunin who bowed before the hokage and spoke, "lord hokage, before you do, please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed proctor of the third exam to speak first," the now named Hayate asked the hokage who nodded. Hayate turned to them before speaking again, "it's nice to meat you all *cough*, there is something I'd like all of you *cough* to do before the third exam, *coughing fit*, and that is a preliminary exam with participation in the main battle on the line."

"I'm sorry, sensei, 'scuse me, but I really don't see the point, what's this preliminary all about, why can't we just move on to the third exam," Sakura asked the coughing chunin, seriously, get the guy a cough drop or lozenge or something.

"Think about Haruno, dignitaries from all over the nations are coming here to see what the villages have to offer, we can't waist their time with matches that show nothing of any real meaning when true fighters need to be showcased," Naruto pointed out.

"Shut up idiot, you don't know why, quit trying to think and just stick to failing, like you always do," Kiba barked out with a snort of laughter at the end, some of the other rookies snickered, those that weren't were Gaara, Hinata, and Sasuke.

"No, Naruto Uzumaki is right, that is the reason why we are having the preliminary matches, important dignitaries are coming so we can't waist their time with matches that provide nothing of any real value, like he said," Hayate confirmed. "Now, if there is anyone who feels you are not in top physical condition, now is your chance to *coughing fit* bow out of the exam, the preliminaries will be starting immediately, also, the winners will be from one on one sudden death elimination fights."

Then came a round of protest from most of everyone, everyone except Zen-Aku, Alyssa, Gaara, Sasuke, and those that weren't rookies, and after some debate about Sasuke's curse mark between him and Sakura, Sasuke chose to stay and fight instead of getting the curse fixed first. It was a stupid move to Zen-Aku, he should let the curse mark be looked at and make sure he isn't a danger to himself or others, but he knew that Sasuke would never willingly take himself out of the exam, so there was only one course of action left. Naruto raised his hand and everyone looked to him as though he was about to give up, "I'm not about to quit, but I would like to report an injury that needs to be looked at as it could be a danger to others, and to himself," Sasuke made to stop him but was ignored. "Team seven was attacked by one of the legendary sanin named Orochimaru, I got separated from them and swallowed by one of the assailant's summoned snakes, when I returned to the scene, Orochimaru bit into Sasuke and placed a curse mark on him. This curse mark is an unknown and as such is to much of a risk for the other contestants to take part in the exam, it also is clearly causing him a lot of pain, I move that he be removed so that the curse can be properly removed or sealed away."

"I understand, however, we cannot remove him if it is against his will, this is an individual choice, but the moment the mark goes out of control is when we will stop it, so the move to remove him from the exam is denied," Hiruzen announced.

"Foolish old man," Naruto muttered under his breath and made Alyssa giggle at his remark, "more than likely the fights will be at random, let's hope we don't fight one another," he whispered to her and she nodded back.

"Now then, we will begin the preliminaries, the round will consist of one-on-one individual combat at full battle intensity, there are twenty people with the dropout of Kabuto, so we will conduct ten battles with the survivors going to the third exam. As for the rules, there are none, you fight till one dies or admits defeat, or he is physically unable to continue the contest, those losing are advised to admit defeat to avoid death, but as proctor, I can decide if a match is over as well *cough*. I will intervene if a match seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible, now it is time to reveal what will be your fate for these matches," Hayate announced before Anko spoke into a headset and a panel on the wall opened up to reveal a screen. "The names of each pare of opponents are chosen completely at random, before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me, so let us begin and announce the first two opponents," after some beeping and name generating, the names for the battle appeared.

YOROI AKADO VS. SASUKE UCHIHA

"Damn, and here I was thinking that I'd get to dust off my skills as soon as I could, oh well, time to see how the wounded Uchiha does I suppose," Naruto whispered to Alyssa as they saw the board, it shouldn't be much of a fight.

"Now then, those whose names have been drawn, come forward," Sasuke and Yoroi stepped forward and stood in front of Hayate, "for the first match, Yoroi Akado and Sasuke Uchiha have been selected, any objections," he received a no, "everyone else go to the upper area."

Everyone headed up and stood on a catwalk overlooking the fight, and as soon as the match started, Zen-Aku and Alyssa knew who would win, Sasuke would win through the use of taijutsu, but how he was going to win is the question. It was actually touch and go for a little while with Yoroi being able to steel chakra, but in the end, Sasuke was finally able to get the upper hand through something he called the lions barrage, when he learned it or when he might have stolen it is another question.

YOROI AKADO VS. SASUKE UCHIHA-WINNER IS SASUKE UCHIHA

The match was over and Kakashi rushed down there in a flash and drug the Uchiha off to seal the curse mark, Zen-Aku could have went with them, he was very good with seals now, it was in his Uzumaki blood after all, but decided against it. If the Uchiha wanted to be stupid and compete in the condition he was in, he's just not going to get any help whatsoever from the duke org, not until he was asked for it, and Zen-Aku knew that he wasn't going to ask, not by a long shot, but now was time for the next fight.

ABUMI ZAKU VS. SHINO ABURAME

This fight was another easy win to determine, especially for Alyssa, she knew that Shino could win this easy, not just because of his various bugs, but how he used them, he could subtlety move them to take you down in any way he saw fit and you'd never see it coming.

ABUMI ZAKU VS. SHINO ABURAME-WINNER IS SHINO ABURAME

"I never would have thought that Shino would be that good, I'm starting to want to fight him now," Naruto said with crossed arms and a thoughtful look on his face, then came a poof behind him and Kakashi showed up looking as laid back as always.

"Kakashi sensei, what about Sasuke, how is he," Sakura asked worried about her teammate that was stupid enough to fight even though he knew that he shouldn't with a curse mark that is an unknown to everyone except its caster.

"Oh, he's fine, sleeping soundly in the infirmary," Kakashi answered her, but Zen-Aku knew that it wasn't just sleeping soundly in the infirmary, he's probably under armed guards that are watching him like a hawk.

"I don't really think it matters in the long run, but the next match has been named," Naruto noted to the two of them, they looked and saw who it was that was going to be fighting, it was more than likely going to be a short match.

TSURUGI MISUMI VS. KANKURO

Zen-Aku knew this match wasn't going to be worth watching so he decided to talk some with Alyssa, it was also a good way to get to know more about someone he hoped to be more than friends with, "so, who do you think that you'll get to fight?"

"I don't really know, if I had to choose, I'd like to save a fight between you and me for the third round, but for now, I'd have to choose someone like Ino or Sakura so that I can take them down a few pegs, they're to full of themselves," Alyssa answered.

"I'd like to save a fight between either you, Sasuke, Gaara, or Shikamaru, everyone else isn't able to fight against us, or can't develop a tactic like the Nara can, I'd much rather fight with those that stand a chance, it'd be more fun that way," Naruto explained.

TSURUGI MISUMI VS. KANKURO-WINNER IS KANKURO

"Like I thought, the fight wasn't really worth watching, and I thought that you said you didn't want to fight me, did you change your mind or would you just rather I fight you instead," Naruto asked her.

"I thought that it would be best if you and I fought since I know that you won't actually try and kill me, I don't know about the others, but I think they might actively try and kill me, especially the other village ninja," Alyssa stated while watching said ninja.

"You're right, I would never try and kill you, I'm not sure I could even if I tried, you've had years to prepare for a fight between us, where as I've not trained as long as you have in this world with their techniques," he admitted as the next combatants were called.

SAKURA HARUNO VS. INO YAMANAKA

"Damn, now whoever wins is going to have even more of an ego, Ino will because she proved she was stronger than Sakura and the true top kunoichi at the academy in the eyes of most and claiming that she should be with Sasuke. If Sakura were to win, the rest of the team would never hear the end of it and we'd have to put up with all kinds of yells that might actually deafen us," Naruto guessed out loud and in earshot of a still going to the ring Sakura.

She turned her head almost like a robot would to face him, "Naruto, I don't know what's gotten into you, but you had better cheer your teammate on, I wouldn't want to come back up here and fight you after I destroy Ino," before walking to the floor.

"Not to mention the fact that her fight with whoever she goes up against in the finals would be so boring and one-sided that the dignitaries might just walk out if they saw it," Naruto continued and clearly ignored his teammate.

"That's mean of you to say Naruto, you should pay attention more to your teammates and how they feel, she's been feeling useless ever since the wave mission and this would be a good opportunity to prove herself, don't undermine that," Kakashi warned.

"I'm not undermining it, I'm just stating that out of all of us here, her and Ino are the weakest out of the entire group of candidates, even some of those that have already left on the first round, but now, if she goes against someone like Gaara or Neji, she'll die," Naruto informed.

"That's true, out of all of us, Sakura is weaker than everyone, at least Ino has her clans jutsu to tip the scale in her favor, but other than that, they are the same, good chakra control because of small reserves, no talent in taijutsu, genjutsu, or ninjutsu. They have book smarts that can be just as advantageous as a genius level intellect, but that means nothing if you don't have the knowledge on how to apply it," Alyssa reaffirmed as she watched the match begin in a pathetic way, neither was trying very hard.

"Out of all the kunoichi here, they also have the least amount of use in seduction, that is one of the kunoichi necessities, for missions that require seduction and information gathering or assassination, they lack in that area as well," Naruto pointed out. He was clearly missing the aura that started coming form those kunoichi that heard him, it may be true, but an unspoken rule is that you don't talk about a woman's charms, or lack thereof, so casually, Kakashi stepped away from him a little bit. He finally noticed when Alyssa was releasing a little growl that sounded like a tiger a little bit, "of course, that is a sensitive matter and we shouldn't be discussing these things out in the open, let's watch the match," he offered calmly while a bead of sweat dripped from his brow. That lowered the tension in the air some and allowed him to let out a breath and watched the rest of the fight, it was a travesty, Sakura got caught in a simple trap through the use of some hair that Ino cut off for a surprise attack using her mind transfer jutsu. If he was an idiot and wanted to impress her or something, he would have shouted out at her and told her to fight it, with how low the chakra levels of each were, it might have worked, but he knew that if she did get trapped like that then she deserved to lose.

SAKURA HARUNO VS. INO YAMANAKA-WINNER IS INO YAMANAKA

Kakashi went to pick Sakura up after she collapsed after Ino undid her jutsu when the match was called, and Asuma did the same with Ino since she collapsed as well from chakra exhaustion, and after they were situated on the balcony, the next match was called.

TENTEN VS. TEMARI

"Interesting, the weapons user that I've heard about is going to be up against one of mister one's siblings, should be interesting to see what her power is," Naruto commented in earshot of Kakashi who figured it out immediately, Gaara was a jinchuriki.

When Tenten threw some weapons and they missed Temari though, it was clear what went on, Temari was a wind user, and therefor used the wind to block the weapons, this fight was easy to determine to Zen-Aku and Alyssa then, Temari would win. After a few more failed tries, sometimes she used scrolls to summon the weapons, other times from different angles, but finally, Temari unveiled all her power and made quick work of Tenten with hardly any effort at all with a simple wind scythe jutsu.

TENTEN VS. TEMARI-WINNER IS TEMARI

Temari got rid of the limp form of Tenten by throwing her across the floor that was riddled with weapons where Lee caught her and that caused another useless incident, Zen-Aku just wished they'd stop having I'm the better ninja contests and got on with it. Thankfully, Guy got down there just in time and prevented anymore of the pointless argument from spreading, the argument might not be that pointless, but Tenten lost, she may have tried her best, but in the end, she still lost to Temari, just pick up the teammate and leave.

SHIKAMARU NARA VS. TSUCHI KIN

The next match was called, and it was a possible unknown, the girl's power was unknown, but they knew Shikamaru's, so it was a coin flip chance to see who would win this fight, and it actually was a close fight at one point. The use of the bells used a sonic vibration that aggravated those with sensitive hearing in the stands as well though, but when Shikamaru finally used his shadow possession jutsu to send a shadow along the string controlling the bells, they wondered how he was going to win. They got their answer when he took out some shuriken and threw it at the opponent, this in turn got a shuriken thrown at him as well, but when he bent backwards to dodge it and so did his opponent, she hit her head on the wall and knocked herself out.

SHIKAMARU NARA VS. TSUCHI KIN-WINNER IS SHIKAMARU NARA

"That was interesting, too bad Shikamaru is starting to show what he can do, if he keeps this up, he might make chunin faster then any of us, including you," Alyssa guessed and got a mock glare from Naruto, he knew she was teasing, but two can play at that game.

"So, are you that worried about little old me, deer, I was beginning to think you was just caught up in the moment earlier, it's good to know that you actually do care," Naruto teased right back, but her own little mock glare was enough to know it worked.

"Was that pun with the deer intentional," Alyssa asked him in a deadpan, she knew she didn't tell him about having the souls about all three of her zords in her, so he must be going off the memory of her having them back on Earth.

Naruto turned his head to her and rose an eyebrow, "I didn't actually mean that to be a pun, but thank you for pointing that out, what ever happened to your zords anyways, I'm asking because I don't want to fight you with three wild zords while I have none."

"I don't have their bodies with me, I only have their souls in me instead, elephant gives me a good memory, deer gives me a good healing factor and prowess in making ointments, and tiger gives me an advantage of strength and agility," Alyssa informed.

"No wonder I could never beat you when it came to academics, I would call it cheating to use an elephant's memory if it wasn't part of your soul now, oh well, but I guess the tigress of the leaf is actually a good name for you then, huh," he asked with a smirk.

"Um, Naruto, I'd hate to break up your two's flirting, but maybe you should keep an eye on the board," Kakashi pointed out and making them blush a little before they looked at the board, it was a match that would not prove exciting.

NARUTO UZUMAKI VS. KIBA INUZUKA

"Here I was hoping I'd get Gaara or Neji, but having a main event like that would be better suited for the final round anyways," Naruto commented, he was about to make his way to the ring when he heard Alyssa behind him.

He turned and was surprised when she hugged him tightly before whispering, "be careful Na, I mean Zen-Aku, I know you'll win but I at least want to make sure you're careful, it'll be bad if a lonely dog takes out a lone wolf."

"Don't worry, deer, I'm as wily as a fox and as cunning as a wolf, a small mut and his dog doesn't stand a chance against me," Naruto said before getting some courage and quickly kissed her cheek before hoping down from the balcony and into the ring.

"Bad luck for you Kakashi, your student doesn't stand a chance against Kiba and Akamaru," Kurenai stated as she stood next to said ninja, but it wasn't Kakashi that answered her, it was actually the Hyuga of team 8.

"Actually, it's bad luck for Kiba, sensei, after so long of showing everyone a false face, it'll be nice to actually see how he fights when he doesn't put on an act," Alyssa stated as she watched Kiba jump into the ring as well and land in front of Naruto.

"You know him best Hinata, but you also know Kiba as well, you really think the dead last of every year will be able to go against a train Inuzuka and his ninja hound," Kurenai asked and gaged her student's reaction to the question.

"I think we need to contact his mother and sister, his mother to inform her of her son's condition and his sister to look after the injuries of Akamaru," Alyssa stated as she was sure that at worst case, they needed to bury a teammate, best case, extended hospital stay.

Down in the floor level, the match has now started, "hey Naruto, don't take this so personally when I rip you to shreds, I'll try to make it as painless as possible though," Kiba exclaimed as his dog barked in agreement.

Naruto sighed before he spoke, "can you hurry this along, I'd like to have at least some entertainment and I know I won't find any here," the jibe worked and got Kiba riled up enough to go on all fours and start his man beast mimicry technique.

"Look, I feel sorry for you, so I'm going to finish you off in one shot, okay," Kiba said as calmly as he could before squatting down and preparing his jutsu, a blue chakra aura appeared around him before the changes took hold, longer finger nails, sharper teeth and the like. He got on all fours and launched himself at Naruto and was fixing to strike him with a well-placed elbow to the chest with his enhanced strength, but something happened that shocked all who witnessed the fight, Naruto dodged the elbow and countered.

Kiba was about to hit Naruto when a hand caught the elbow with his right hand and struck at Kiba with his left elbow in the collarbone of the mut and cracked it right then and there, then he brought up his fist and slammed the back of his hand into Kiba's nose. Kiba was so off balance that he didn't have any time to react when Naruto brought his right fist and implanted it into the boy's sternum and sent him flying to where Akamaru was waiting for his master to be done with someone clearly out of his league. Judging from the gasps that he was hearing, nobody expected Naruto to be able to counter, attack, or not be able to get up after any attack from the mut, but they should have known, he wasn't the most unpredictable ninja in the hidden leaf for nothing you know.

"If that was the best that you could do Kiba, I suggest you quit before you hurt yourself," Naruto warned him as he flexed his fingers, the new body that Zen-Aku was in was incredible, it was almost frightening to feel the power he now had access to.

"This is unreal, there is no way the dead last could ever hope to beat me, a loser like you will never defeat me, come on Akamaru," Kiba yelled out before him and the dog ran for Naruto, Kiba took out some smoke bombs and threw them at him. While the smoke was covering the area, Akamaru went in and started to search for him and attack Naruto while he was blinded by the smoke, only problem was, when the smoke cleared, everyone saw that it was only Akamaru standing there with a confused face. "What, where did he go, nobody got out of the smoke, what happened," Kiba yelled again before a pebble was thrown at him, another pebble and he looked around to find his opponent wasn't in sight, when another pebble hit him he finally looked up. On the ceiling was Naruto, standing upside down, looking on in boredom at the lack of awareness by the Inuzuka, who were known for their savagery and animal instincts in battle, clearly, the trait skipped a generation.

"But, how did he get up there, I never even saw him leave the smoke, and he was still there when the smoke bombs went off, how did he do it, what have you been teaching the boy Kakashi," Kurenai asked, she was clearly in shock at not seeing Naruto pull that off.

"Oh, you know, the basics," in truth though, he had no idea that Naruto was that fast, hell, if the small cracks in the ceiling was anything to go by, the speed was new and not even under full control yet, but it was still impressive that he got up there without anyone knowing.

Naruto cut the chakra to his feet and fell head first to the ground where he flipped at the last second and landed with grace on the ground, barely even facing his opponent in a turned to the right position and barely even acknowledging the Inuzuka's presence.

"That's it, I'm going all out and beating you so badly, you'll never even dream about becoming the hokage again," Kiba yelled out before tossing a food pill to Akamaru who ate it and grew in size a little, changed color and jumped on Kiba's back before turning into his clone. "Beast mimicry, man beast clone," he announced and looked as feral as possible, Naruto wasn't impressed, in fact he seemed only mildly interested in the transformation into a 'beast', which wasn't really all that impressive. "All fours jutsu," the launched themselves at Naruto and intended to take him out with a joined claw press, probably going to crush his head or shoulders in their grasp if they could, that's if they could, Naruto did the unexpected again. He grabbed their hands like someone was forming the snake hand seal and used their own momentum to flip them so that they were on their backs before sending a chop to both of their stomachs and leaving the ground cracked when they landed from the force.

They got up quick enough after that and made for quick attacks to through him off balance, but Naruto just dodged them with the least amount of energy needed, but when they tried to rush him, Naruto jumped in order to dodge. The twin Kibas saw this as their chance and went in for their fang over fang attack, so what did Naruto do, he crossed his arms and caught them with the palms of his hands while they kept on spinning, Naruto brought his left hand up while taking his right hand down. When enough space was between the two hands, and therefore fang over fangs, he used their own force to spin him and let them pass over and under him as he spun and landed safely on the ground as both Kibas came to a halt on each side of him. They got ready and went for another fang over fang and this time went for a side by side assault, thinking he wouldn't do the same trick again, and they were right, he wouldn't do the same thing twice, so he didn't, instead he bent backwards and let them pass above him. One Kiba threw a smoke bomb his way and in hopes to blind him while the other kept an eye on the ceiling to see if he headed there, he didn't so they went in for the kill, now Naruto was forced to block a little bit as he stood in the same spot and took the beating. When the smoke cleared and revealed him to be only a little scratched up, they went for the same move again, only this time, Naruto did something else then jump. They were watching the ceiling, but not the floor, so he immediately went into the floor and hid until he noticed Akamaru over him and grabbed him by the neck, so when Kiba stopped, he was alone and the Akamaru Kiba was in the grasp of Naruto.

"You're getting on my nerves Naruto, now let Akamaru go or else you'll really piss me off," Kiba yelled over to him, Naruto ignored him and punched Akamaru in the gut so that he'd transform back to his dog form, then he effectively broke its leg with one hand.

"Now it's just you and me," Naruto said as he tossed Akamaru to the side, "I'd advise you to give up again, but I know you won't even if I did, wannabeast," that was apparently to confusing for the mut to understand, so he had to explain it. "You wanna be a beast, but you don't actually know how, or what one looks like, so let me show you what a true beast looks like," he decided to also show off a little bit, and by that, he was going to make a show of him dispelling the transformation of Naruto. First came the fingers, it appeared that the skin was being peeled off of them and showing black gloves as it was going up his arm and uncovering the rest of his appearance, then came the back where it then headed down and undid the legs. It then traveled up his torso and undid the head for last and showing everyone the face of a true wolf with piercing amber eyes and gray hair with a single horn resting perfectly on his forehead, this was the truest form of Zen-Aku, the wolf duke org. "Ready to give up yet," his voice changed as well, now it was deeper and sounded like he was growling a little bit, when Kiba responded by throwing shuriken at him, Zen-Aku disappeared from view and became a shadow that appeared in front of Kiba. With one swipe of his right clawed hand, Kiba was sent crashing into the wall of the arena, only thing that was seen of him was his feet hanging off the edge of the hole, and he wasn't even moving, which had Kurenai panicking a little from a friend's son possibly being killed.

"Now that's just showing off, Zennie," Alyssa stated and got everyone else to turn to her at what she just called the thing that used to be Naruto, she blushed from their stares and stepped back a little bit as to help avoid their stares.

"What did you just call me, my name isn't Zennie, deer, it's Zen-Aku Uzumaki, get it right or I'll start calling you little kitten," Zen-Aku yelled out to her with a tick mark on his head, he was Zen-Aku the wolf duke org, not someone to be given a pet name.

"Fine, I'll call you by your name and not use pet names, but you need to stop calling me deer and never again call me little kitten, you got that," Alyssa said with a slight glare at being called kitten, she was a tigress, and anything less was too insulting.

"Fine, hay, proctor, I think Kiba's down for the count, and I'm not going to be the one to check for a pulse, that's your job," Zen-Aku reminded the still dumbfounded proctor who shook his head out of his stupor long enough to go check the boy stuck in the wall.

"Kiba is alive but not in any condition to fight with the injuries he has sustained, the winner of this fight goes to Naruto," Hayate was interrupted by a cough from the boy, "sorry, Zen-Aku Uzumaki."

ZEN-AKU UZUMAKI VS. KIBA INUZUKA-WINNER IS ZEN-AKU UZUMAKI

Zen-Aku made his way up to the balcony to watch the other fights with his hands to his sides and looking all serious, but behind the wolf mask he was smirking at seeing everyone's shocked faces, maybe the merger was a good thing after all. When he made it over to where he was standing before, Alyssa greeted him with a hug and a return kiss on his cheek, "I knew you could do it, but did you have to make a show of transforming," she asked while still in the hug.

"Maybe a bit of the old idiot side of Naruto stuck around a bit, but it's not like it hurt anyone, other then the mut though, but I don't count that since it was a battle and all," Zen-Aku said as they broke the hug.

"I think an explanation is an order," Kakashi said as he and Kurenai were standing behind them, if they explained and didn't like the answer, both of the kids were going to have hell to pay come the next training session.

"Fine, we'll explain later, let's watch the rest of the matches first though," Zen-Aku suggested and they turned to see who it was that would be facing who, and wouldn't you know it, the next one to fight would be Alyssa herself.

HINATA HYUGA VS. NEJI HYUGA

"Damn," Zen-Aku cursed, he knew the relationship between them better then anyone, Neji, like all Hyuga, hated Alyssa because she doesn't use the main style of the Hyuga clan, she uses her own tiger style that far outclasses the gentle fist with the byakugan. He also knew her well enough to know that she wasn't going to use her own style, the family hated her enough, it would add more fuel to the fire if she were to fight Neji and win using the tiger style instead of the gentle fist. Even after years of practice, she was never as good with the gentle fist as Neji or her father, she was better then her sister who was talented as well, but that doesn't account for much when everyone else that needs to be beat can't be beat with her gentle fist.

When Zen-Aku turned to look at her, she moved to stop what she knew he would say, "I know, but I can't add more fuel to the already burning fire, if I beat him with the tiger style and make the Hyuga look weak when they use the gentle fist, they might put the seal on me. I won't forfeit either, I have to try, as long as I fight my hardest with the gentle fist, then there's a chance I'll get at least some credit," she walked by him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before walking down, this seemed to be their ritual before a fight.

When she got down there, Neji was waiting for her, Hayate started the match and they both got into position for their gentle fist and without a single word began to trade blows at a lightning fast pace, and to those that couldn't tell, it seemed like they were evenly matched. Zen-Aku knew differently, Neji was hitting many more times then Alyssa was at the moment, a lot more, with each attack of hers, he blocked, each attacking hit that he threw, she had to block or evade, she was trying her hardest to hit him, but it wasn't enough. She was losing ground fast, but for a moment was almost about to get the upper hand Neji revealed to have attacked her at the same moment and it was a chest blow, as well as an arm blow, when she coughed up blood, she continued by knocked his hand away. She made for a strike and was grabbed by Neji and attacked her arm again before knocking her away from him with a single palm thrust that did even more damage, then Neji began a speech about her being a failure, which caused a growl to come from Zen-Aku.

When Alyssa refused to forfeit and was going to have to be knocked out before she left of her own free will, she coughed up even more blood and Zen-Aku almost sprang into action right then and there, but then he saw Neji's eyes, he was going to kill her. She continued anyway and continued to try and fight him with the gentle fist style, actually, her own style won't do much good right now with the damage already done, even though she was really trying, it didn't matter to Neji and he uppercut her and drove her back. She moved in to attack him again and Neji hit her hard enough to send her down and almost killed her, Zen-Aku was shaking, if he moved to kill her, there would be one less genin making it to the third round, and when she got back up, Neji looked ready to end it.

That was when Hayate, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Guy got to the ring and stopped him from killing her, Hayate in front and pointing to his headband, Kakashi grabbing his right arm, Kurenai grabbing his left arm, and Guy putting his arm around the boy's neck. They weren't the only ones to go down to the ring though, Zen-Aku made it down in time to catch her as she was falling and coughing up some blood, he held her in his arms in quite the caring way. "I swear, I will make him pay, you have my word on that," he swore as she was in his arms, she actually smiled at him as she was fading out, she wasn't dead, but it would take a little time for the deer wild zord to heal her fully.

"Hey, loser, I wouldn't worry about her now, she couldn't make it using our style, so she made her own, the nerve, she was too weak, so she would remain weak, once a failure, always a failure," Neji commented in such a stupid way.

"I guess that means nothing coming form someone who is as blind as a bat then, her style was superior to yours, so you berated her for it, and you call her weak when it is you who are the weak ones, I swear on her blood, I will kill you. I won't beat you come the finals, if we meat, I swear that I will not beat you, but I will kill you, not a single one of your skills will ever work on me, disgrace," Zen-Aku swore.

"You better not ever hope that day comes, because you will lose, failure," Neji turned his back on him and walked back up to the balcony to overlook the rest of the matches, just as the others did, and it wasn't until Alyssa was on her way to the emergency room that Zen-Aku left her side.

When he finally went up to the balcony, the jonin were all looking at him with a little distain at just willingly outing that he was going to kill a fellow leaf ninja because of what happened, but not all could really blame him, but some were still giving him looks.

GAARA VS. ROCK LEE

Gaara was up against Rock Lee, the one tails jinchuriki vs the taijutsu specialist, this should be fun to watch, if anything he could see Lee go all out and how far he could push Gaara, might not be much but it might be a lot as well. Oddly enough, Kankuro came over to Zen-Aku's side of the ring and decided to talk to him since he decided to watch further towards the steps then the rest, "hey you, how come you're over here by yourself, why aren't you hanging with your buddies," the sand genin asked.

"I figured I'd be close to the steps in case news on the condition of the last combatant, she is precious to me, but shouldn't you be over on the visitor's side of the stage, this is the home team's side," Zen-Aku stated to the boy.

"Since nobody is stopping me or asking that I go back, I'll stay until I feel like leaving, but I did want to know, what's the deal with that Neji guy, I don't think we saw everything he had to offer in the last fight, what's his story," Kankuro asked casually.

"Fine, I'll tell you, what you saw wasn't all, or even half, of what that kid can do, he held back a lot, and considering how much he hates who he just beat, that means something about his control, I've never actually seen him go all out," the duke org informed.

"Wow, seems like your well informed, and you keep a cool head, you know what, I like you," he obviously thought that would get him on his good graces, or at least get some insight about what the mister numbers thing was all about.

"I'm indifferent towards you, but if you want information, I might as well tell you why I call your little brother mister one, not that the truth will make a difference," Zen-Aku walked over to the sand ninja and whispered in his ear, "that's the number of his tails." That is when it clicked for Kankuro, why Gaara calls him number nine, he holds the nine-tailed fox, the most powerful of all the tailed beasts, which means that there is no way that they could win against him, "but don't worry my seal is much more stable than his."

"His seal is unstable, is that why he's insane and has a bloodlust," Kankuro asked, this was important news, news that need to be given to his superiors right away, if the seal was unstable, the one-tailed Shukaku could come out at any moment.

"Yes, Shukaku wants to drive his host insane and be released through sleep deprivation, which is why he has insomnia, the nine-tails thought that Shukaku had gotten over being sealed a while ago, but that clearly isn't the case," the duke org explained. "However, I am an Uzumaki, we are known for our seals, and since I've found out about being an Uzumaki that is known for seals, I've done nothing but train in them, give me a little time and I'll get a seal that can fix him."

"Thank you so much, it might actually be nice to have my little brother back and not some insane, out for blood, psychopath," Kankuro commented before turning to watch the fight, "your friend is going down, he'll never beat Gaara, not in this lifetime."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, it's possible that he has something we have to see, but who knows, you may be right, let's watch and find out," Zen-Aku commented as they began to watch the fight.

The match started with Lee doing a leaf hurricane that got blocked by Gaara's sand, the next little while Lee spent trying to get by mister one's defense with various melee combat attacks while defending against some sand that attacked him, Lee even threw some shuriken.

"With the sand protecting Gaara of its own accord, there is no way that guy can get through his defense, the guy's done for if all he uses is taijutsu," Kankuro commented again, which was true, you can't beat Gaara using basic taijutsu like what Lee used.

Then Gaara used his sand to throw Lee before he continued the assault of taijutsu while defending against the sand before jumping out of the way and landing on the statue of a ram seal, where he took off some leg waits that were extremely heavy.

"What in the world is with this crazy messed up world where you have people willing to do that," Zen-Aku commented out loud as he saw how much the leg weights actually weighed, probably close to an entire truck, on each leg.

His speed increased, and it seemed like he was beginning to get threw Gaara's defense, before he actually got through the defense and dropped his heal on mister one's head before he continued his assault and hit Gaara again with his bare fist.

"Oh no, he's had his shell cracked, it's his last line of defense with his sand in case the sand storm that surrounded him ever actually got beat itself," Kankuro informed, it was a good lesson, but came with a flaw in of itself.

"But the chakra used to keep it up takes its tole on him, and unlike the sand, the shell can be cracked and got past, but you still have to watch out for the sand that can come up to protect him, in other words it's a giant weak spot," Zen-Aku pointed out.

The sand armor reformed and after a moment of staring, and a subtle nod from Guy, Lee unwrapped his hands and traveled at great speeds around Gaara before finally kicking him up into the air and kept kicking him until he was high up. At one point though, Lee closed his eyes because of the pain he was feeling, so he didn't see that Gaara traded places with a sand clone until after he had enacted his primary lotus and spun Gaara head first into the ground.

Kankuro was looking on stupefied at what was just done to his brother, "don't worry, he replaced himself with a sand clone when Lee wasn't looking, he's fine, but this match might as well be over with how far he's pushed his body," Zen-Aku commented.

That calmed the sand ninja down as Gaara came out of the sand left behind, before attacking Lee with wave after wave of sand, Lee stood no chance of winning now that he's used such a physically demanding technique. Lee began to dodge some, but he still got pounded by another wave of sand-based attacks, he dodged a few more before getting hit again with some more, the pattern repeated a few times more until Guy gave Lee a signal to do something else. A large column of sand was sent for him and in an instant, Lee moved just like before and dodged out of the way of the attack, this obviously left people in the audience confused, even Zen-Aku was confused about what just happened. Then he heard the explanation about the eight inner gates from Kakashi, they sounded powerful, and this was the first time that he was hearing about it, this obviously meant the match wasn't over yet, probably not going to be over for a little while longer. Gaara sent another round of sand at Lee and it was dodged every single time, before Gaara stopped for a moment and gave Lee enough time to release the third gate and became powerful enough to actually turn his skin red from so much blood pumping through his veins. Then came another gate opening and brought forth even more power and began his attack aimed Gaara where he kicked him up very high in the air with a single kick before he was attacked again with various punches at different angles and making Gaara stay in the air. Then Lee opened another gate and came the hidden lotus by knocking Gaara away before bringing him back with the use of the green beast's own wrappings where he knocked him back down with both his right leg and right palm in one powerful thrust.

The destruction from the outcome was unbelievable, but what was even more unbelievable was the speed at which Gaara turned his gored into sand to soften the blow, the control he had over sand was just unbelievable, almost unrealistic. When Lee fell to the floor and was out of energy from the overuse of his own technique, Gaara saw that as his perfect chance to catch him with his sand and put an end to the weak green beast, but was only able to get his left arm and leg at the moment. When Gaara tried again and looked like he would finish the fight off, Guy stepped in and protected his student, something that Gaara couldn't understand at the moment, not without being shown any kindness. Then Zen-Aku saw something that he had never seen in all of his combined centuries of lifetime experience, he saw someone stand back up from his pure willpower alone, the boy wanted to fight, even while he was unconscious, he still wanted to prove himself.

Zen-Aku was more amazed with this world more and more, he actually smiled at that fact before speaking to Kankuro, "tell Gaara that I'll fix his seal, from one jinchuriki to another, if nobody else accepts us, we'll have to help each other out."

"I'll tell him, but you won't have to worry about someone not accepting him, he's still my little brother, and while we might not be as tree hugging about it as you leaf ninja are, we still care about our family, take care," Kankuro bid farewell and walked over to his side.

Zen-Aku watched him go and just waited for the next round, with Guy's interference, that meant that Gaara actually won, bringing everything to a close aside from one match, the sound ninja versus Choji, it might be a close fight as well.

GAARA VS. ROCK LEE-WINNER IS GAARA

DOSU VS. CHOJI AKIMICHI

Choji expanded so that his ears were covered and used his human bolder jutsu to spin around and try to attack Dosu, but he had little control over this form and got himself stuck in a wall where Dosu ended the match. He ended it by sending a sound wave through his body using his natural water, since the human body is seventy percent water, and water carries sound waves, all of Choji's body was basically one big ear.

DOSU VS. CHOJI AKIMICHI-WINNER IS DOSU

"With that match over, the preliminaries are now finished," Hayate announced before all of those that advanced, except for Sasuke, went down and stood in front of the giant ram hand seal, "I commend all of those who have advanced to the third level of the chunin exams."

Then came the explanation of how the matches were set up, basically a tournament, one to be held one month from now to give all of the dignitaries time to get wind of who would be fighting who, which was arranged from drawing slips of paper.

Dosu-9  
Zen-Aku-1  
Temari-7  
Kankuro-5  
Gaara-3  
Shikamaru-8  
Ino-10  
Neji-2  
Shino-6  
Sasuke-4

This meant that it will be Zen-Aku vs Neji, Gaara vs Sasuke, Kankuro vs Shino, Temari vs Shikamaru, and Dosu vs Ino, and this couldn't be any better for Zen-Aku, he gets Neji in the first fight, the very first fight is going to be him versus the Hyuga, wonderful. Then came the announcement that the judges will decide weather or not any of them get to become chunin or not, so it didn't matter if you won the tournament or not, you still might not become a chunin in the end, or that all of them will become a chunin.

All of the genin left after that and went their own way, he decided to head for the hospital first thing and check in and see how far along the deer zord had come in healing Alyssa, and stay to keep her company.


	4. Time to Die

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 4

Time to Die

Zen-Aku was walking into the hospital, he had been in there many times when he was a little boy and the doctors would actually treat him after his usual beatings by the village, most assumed it was only glares and being ignored, but it was actually a lot of things. He would never tell Alyssa this of course, she may have already figured it out, but she would never say anything so that he could avoid all of those bad memories, just one of those things that puts her on the same level of caringness as back on Earth. As he was walking up to the receptionist to find out what room she was in though, he saw someone he hated, it was a snooty receptionist that never liked him, during the attack of the nine-tails, her father was one of those eaten and she held a grudge.

"May I please have the room number of one Hinata Hyuga," Zen-Aku asked in the most polite and toned-down voice he could, he still remembered all the times she tried to slip him cyanide when she thought nobody else was watching.

"You can only visit if you're family, and you don't look like a Hyuga, also, no masks are allowed to be worn inside the hospital," she said in that way he hated to hear, but he didn't really have to think of a way to get the information out of her.

"It's alright, he doesn't have time to be visiting her anyways," Kakashi stepped out from a hallway and approached him, of course, where else would he be but keeping an eye on Sasuke when he was in such a vulnerable state and could be attacked.

"I actually do, I'll only explain after I've seen her and made sure she's fine, if you want answers, that's the only way you'll get them, and you know it, so you might as well lead me to her," Zen-Aku suggested, Kakashi actually sighed, he did know it.

"Fine, follow me," he said, and they made their way through the many hallways, against the protests to the receptionist, and finally came to a halt outside of Alyssa's room, Kakashi stepped aside and let the duke org through, he saw a sight that made him growl.

She was hooked up to tubes and wires that measured her heart beat, it was steady and growing steadier, the deer zord was doing its job and healing her as best it can, progress was moderately slow compared to what he'd seen it do before though. Then he got an idea about how he might be able to make it go faster, if only a little bit, he walked fully inside and stood next to her bedside while Kakashi studied what he was doing, he either didn't notice or didn't care that the cyclops was watching. He summoned forth his dagger flute in a quick moment and brought it to his mask's lips, or would have if Kakashi didn't grab his wrist and squeeze, he maybe should have explained beforehand, better late than never though. "I'm not going to do anything with this other than play a song, you may not believe me, but you should," Zen-Aku said, Kakashi seemed to study him for a moment before noticing that the dagger did have a place like a flute would, so he allowed it.

What came next was the most beautiful song Kakashi had ever heard, it had no lyrics to it, but he felt like it should, but the music that was made with the flute alone was quite beautiful, it made him think about the time he had with the boy's father and his old team. All those happy memories, all those times they trained, the missions, the beautiful moments, not a single memory he had was a sad one, no death, just pure happy and beautiful memories, all from the music that seemed to have reflected that very feeling as well. The song ended and Kakashi felt a little disappointed at that fact, and the fact that he now knew he knew nothing about his sensei's own son, regardless of everything, he just felt a little bit more of a failure now then before his genin started playing. "That was beautiful Naruto, where did you learn to play like that," Kakashi asked him, he might as well start to get to know him, it couldn't hurt anything, and he might not see himself as much of a failure when all of this was over.

"I remember it," was his answer, that obviously got Kakashi confused if his slight raise of the eyebrow was anything to go by, "I guess now would be an appropriate time to explain what happened in the forest of death, you might want to call Kurenai, I won't tell this again." They waited for Kurenai to get back from visiting Kiba's mom and updating her on his condition before Zen-Aku began to explain everything he could, minus the parts that only Alyssa knew, and by the end, both jonin didn't know what to think. "I know it's a lot to take in, and Alyssa has yet to explain her side of the story yet, and don't worry, I'll be in here each day to play the song so that the deer can heal her faster, but in the meantime, I should get to training, I still have much to test."

"Wait," Kakashi called out before Zen-Aku could even stand up fully, "Zen-Aku was it, I get you must be strong, but I still think you need a trainer to help you out, and I'm going to have my hands full with Sasuke, since he's going against Gaara and all. I though that I'd call in Ebisu at first, but then I thought that you might take that as an insult since you clearly won't take his boasting about being an elite jonin, so I'll see if I can have who I'm thinking of meat you somewhere."

"That sounds good, I need someone that can work on chakra control with me, before I could use the water walking technique, but with my chakra system out of sorts, I need to see if I can still do it, I'll be at the hot springs," Zen-Aku said before walking out.

* * *

Hot springs

Zen-Aku was at a part of the hot springs not used often, or ever it seemed like, it was in the center of everything, so he knew he could also keep an eye out for who Kakashi got as his trainer for the duration of the month-long break, hopefully not a joke of a sensei. He took off his armor and revealed the darker and furrier form he held underneath it, it was also well toned and well maintained, with help from a proper diet and such, not a single ounce of fat could be seen, he left his mask on though. The duke org practiced the water walking for a little while, and even though he already knew it beforehand, it was still difficult to get a few steps out before falling into the hot spring, and he did not want to fall, he was hoping that the incentive would be enough. He was on his twenty fifth try when he heard the unmistakable sounds of perverted giggling and caught a glimpse of white hair before he fell back into the hot spring, this was getting ridiculous, he needed to find some way to remove the five-pronged seal.

When he finally got out of the hot water, he looked over at what the distraction was, and he finally got a good look at who it was, it was Jiraiya of the sanin, the sage of Mount Myoboku, and his own godfather, that better not be who Kakashi sent as his trainer. He got dressed and walked over to the man and stood there until the sage finally seemed to sense his presence behind him and turned to see the form of a wolf-based humanoid, "hello godfather, I thought you were off whoring around outside the village," Zen-Aku said venomously.

"I don't know what you're talking about beast, I don't have a godson, now leave, you're interrupting my research," Jiraiya stated before turning back around and peeping while writing things down in his notebook, oblivious to who was standing behind him.

"Minato Namikaze," that got the man to freeze up, "Kushina Uzumaki," and that got him to raise his head up, "I know I don't look much like my parents, but a cursed mask that permanently fuses with your soul can do that to you, but why say you don't have a godson."

"Kakashi never told me you look like a humanoid wolf, or that you have a horn," the sage said with a sigh before he stood up and turned to the duke org who stood a little below his head with the fused body he currently had, "and security reasons on the godson thing."

"Understandable on the last account, don't like it, but understandable, and he must have wanted you to see for yourself how I looked, now, I need you to get rid of this five-pronged seal, after that, we can go back to not speaking to each other again," he offered.

"I'll release the five-pronged seal, but I'm also staying, I had to check in with my spy network, not whoring about, not all the time at least, but I also need to teach you a few things about your father that you probably don't know," Jiraiya informed.

"I know how to make the rasengan, I haven't gotten it yet, but I'm working on control first, but if you want to teach me how to get a three-way summoning, then I can take your offer," Zen-Aku offered, the part about the rasengan wasn't all true, but enough. He does know how to make it, he knows all the steps, but he's stuck on the third step, all that training he did when he wasn't with Alyssa or his team wasn't just for show after all, he was studying and doing all he could to become strong. How he got a hold of how to do the rasengan was simple, the third gave him books his mother and father left him to have when he got old enough, or found out the truth, it wasn't just the rasengan of course, but you need to start somewhere.

"A three-way summoning, not many even have one, let alone two, but three is just way too out there, out of curiosity though, what were you thinking of getting," he asked, if it was possible, he'd have to go ask the toad bosses about it.

"Wolf, hammerhead shark, and an alligator," was the duke org's answer, he knew it wouldn't be the exact same as his old dark wild zords, but it might be possible to get a variation of them back, that should give his dagger flute more power.

"The wolf will be easy, toads and wolfs don't usually mix, but they do have an alliance for peace, so they can be contacted, the hammerhead shark falls into the shark category, so I can more than likely get you that since it has water element like toads. The alligator is another story though, that's reptile, they aren't known for working with the other two, in fact, the reptile animal summons all hate the reptiles, and the reptiles hate the rest, they are better than the snakes though," Jiraiya informed.

"I understand; however, can you at least look into it, I know you don't want to, but it would help me greatly," Zen-Aku asked, he knew he might have to settle for just the wolf and shark animal summons, but it doesn't hurt to try.

"Fine, now lift up your armor and channel chakra into the seal so I can perform the release," he did as Jiraiya instructed and removed part of his armor channeled the chakra where Jiraiya finally said, "five-pronged seal release," before jabbing his fingers into his gut.

The duke org went over to the water and walked on it as though he was walking down a road then walked back to the land and cracked his neck before saying, "thank you, now, how are you going to ask your toad friends about the summoning?"

"Like this," Jiraiya effortlessly summoned a toad before giving it instructions, "tell Fukasaku that I need him to reverse summon me right away, I have to talk to the elder toad," the toad nodded before poofing out of existence, "I'll see you later kid," soon, he was gone as well.

"Well, I guess I should start training somewhere else, this is bound to be very destructive," Zen-Aku commented to himself before leaving the area and finding a spot in the woods with a stream, this was the perfect spot to do some training. First was some strength training to see how far he could go, it was quite far, then came speed, he was faster then he was back on earth, twice as fast in fact, three times if he pumped chakra into his muscles, same with his strength. Summoning his weapons was easier and quicker, he barely had to put any of his org energy into summoning them, the amount of power he now had was equivalent to that of maybe a dozen master orgs, he could take on all of his fellow orgs with no problems. He must have spent until nightfall testing his limits, which were frightening for a genin to possess, before he decided to return to his apartment for some rest while he figured out how all of this would help him kill Neji in the third exam.

* * *

Next day

Zen-Aku rose bright and early without an alarm before putting on his mask that was beside the bed and getting ready in his armor before heading to the hospital and playing his flute for Alyssa, only to find she was not only sitting up, but checking out. "I thought you might be out of it for a while longer, I had planned to come and play for you while the deer healed you," Zen-Aku said from behind her and watched as she jumped and turned to look at him.

"I'm glad you came, I was going to go out looking for you as well when I got out, I was going to thank you for that song you played yesterday, it got the deer zord to kick everything up a notch," Alyssa stated as she finished packing her things from the room.

"Good, are you ready to get you out of here, I need a training partner, and I know that you're the only one able to do it," he asked with a wolfish grin behind his mask, she turned to him and gave a smirk that reminded him of a tiger. They walked out together and made their way to the clearing in the forest that he was at yesterday and were about to train when they were interrupted by a poof of smoke that came from between them, it was Jiraiya with a serious expression.

"There you are Naruto, well I should say Zen-Aku now, anyways, I talked to the elder toad and he gave me something, it was a bag of marbles to give to you, said you should give them to someone named Alyssa Hyuga, does that name mean anything," he asked.

"Yes, she's the girl standing right behind you," Zen-Aku replied before pointing behind him, when Jiraiya turned, he was greeted by someone with long dark blue hair that came down to the small of her back and pale eyes in a fighting stance not Hyuga.

"Okay, here," Jiraiya took out a bag and tossed it to her, she caught it with ease and was about to look inside when he spoke again, "some metal man contacted the elder toad, said he had been searching and found you through the realms. Said to give you that and tell you that three you would recognize as your own, the other three you could use to seal the mask's power away and hide it in the divided crystals, but it only works if the mask isn't on someone, and I doubt it'd work now anyways," he glanced at his godson.

Alyssa opened the bag and took out, much to Zen-Aku's shock, the elephant, the deer, and the tiger crystals, but what good will that do without the actual zords themselves, then she brought out the alligator, the hammerhead, and the wolf crystals. What was going on here, there was something else in the bag as well, a note addressed to her, "Alyssa, these can be used as a catalyst for you to summon the spirits from your soul to fight when needed, you can use the other three to seal the power of the mask. I put their souls in the crystals as well, this will give them enough power to seal all of the mask's power and allow you to keep it safe on your person, be well and don't forget, the power of the wild zords is always with you-Animus."

By now, all three of them was reading the note and got a good clue about what the guy was thinking, "so, do I get the wild zords, or are you going to use them to try and separate both parts of me," Zen-Aku asked from behind her.

"Oh, I don't see why not, I know you're not evil or anything, and to have the power of our zords with us would be a great asset against summons," Alyssa guessed as she picked out the three-former dark zords and gave them to him. He put them in his flute and began to play his song, it was glorious, Alyssa loved the song, he played it so well, but usually it held a sense of longing to it, but now, it held a sense that he was now complete, that he could do anything now.

"Thank you, Alyssa, thank you so much," he said before leaning in and removing his mask to kiss her, he did it faster this time so not to be disturbed by someone, and she instantly returned the kiss making her body go flush with his as they embraced each other. The feel of the soft lips on his was euphoric, giving a rush the likes of which he had never felt before, is this what it was like to kiss a loved one, is this the true feeling that he had been missing when he was just an org, it wasn't a heart, it was love.

They broke apart when they needed some air and left the both of themselves panting a little, this was going to be a great month, Alyssa spoke first, "I guess this means I'm a bit of a furry, huh, oh well, I don't mind," she gave him another quick kiss.

"If you two are done giving me inspiration for my next book, I think it's time that I begin your training, and it's going to be one hell of a ride, I can't wait," Jiraiya commented, if they only knew what he planned to do for the rest of the month, if only they knew.

* * *

Day of the final exam

For a month, an entire month, they had been put through hell on earth, the damn bastard of a pervert trainer beat them, talked down to them, questioned them at times, and just about ditched them whenever he could to peak on some swimming women. During that month though, they had been given something few get to experience, they had been trained by one of the sanin, the great toad sage of Mount Myoboku, the godfather to Zen-Aku and sensei of his father Minato, they were stronger than ever.

It was morning now, the morning of the third and final round of the chunin exams, and the Hyuga haven't seen one hair on Alyssa's head for the entire month, they haven't even heard of a rumor about where she could be, even through the use of their byakugan. Zen-Aku also disappeared from the village, not even the cooks at Ichiraku ramen knew where he was, the hokage almost feared the worst, but then Jiraiya came in and said he was training the boy and his girl to become even stronger, so he calmed them down.

So, here we are, in the morning of the day of the chunin exams, in one apartment, resting from their month-long training sessions were Zen-Aku Uzumaki, the most unpredictable wolf in the hidden leaf village, and Alyssa, tigress of the leaf. Why were they in one apartment, after having their entire forms beaten and bruised so badly, they just wanted to sleep in each other's arms that they didn't care if it would be frowned upon, they were only sleeping anyways, too young for anything more than that. That didn't help the blushes that were on their faces after being woke up by the blaring of the alarm, they were so close to each other, if it wasn't for Alyssa being on his chest, he's sure his horn would have impaled her by now.

They quickly separated from each other and prepared to head to the arena for the final round, both having their standard attires on, Alyssa in her old ranger uniform that was altered a little to fit her growing body, Zen-Aku with his dark wolf armor. They casually walked to the arena with her left arm interlocked with his right arm, they were just about there when they saw her father walk in with her little sister, they had scowls on their faces instead of the normal stoic looks. "Are you sure you'll be fine, I don't feel too comfortable letting you go off alone," Zen-Aku asked, in a worried tone, usually he wouldn't be so worried, but he didn't trust those Hyuga to not do something with Alyssa while he had his back turned.

"I'll be fine, you just go in and do your best, don't worry about me, I'll see you when you win," Alyssa said before kissing his cheek for luck and walking in the entrance for the audience, he went through the fighter's entrance and saw everyone except Dosu and Sasuke were there.

He watched on as calmly as everyone else was when the kazakage came in and had a brief discussion with the hokage before the beginning address was announced, it was now time for the fights, but one more announcement needed to be made first it seemed. "There is one more thing before we get started," the new proctor to the exam stated, Zen-Aku briefly wondered where the other one was before he noticed the proctor did something, he pulled out a new sheet of paper, on it was surprising for most. Now, all the matches up to Ino and Dosu's match was the same, only thing was that now, Ino was going against whoever won against Temari and Shikamaru, something must have happened to Dosu in the last month, probably dead. "Alright, the terrain is different, but the rules are the same as before, that is that there are no rules, the match continues until one candidate acknowledges defeat, or dies, with that being said, if I determine that a match is over, I can step in and stop at any time. No arguments are permitted, understood," he asked, and nobody answered but he knew they were paying attention anyways, so they understood, "these are the opponents for the first match, Zen-Aku Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga, those two stay, the rest can wait in the waiting area."

Everyone else walked on up and left the two fighters alone, they turned to one another and waited until the match officially started, but before it did, Neji asked, "you got anything to say to me," and boy did he.

"Yeah, I'm going to enjoy watching the life leave your eyes as I repeatedly step on your head and carve out your heart," Zen-Aku stated with a growl, just because Alyssa was alright doesn't mean that Neji wasn't going to get what was promised.

Neji got into his stance and activated the byakugan while the duke org just stood still as a statue with his arms to his sides and his eyes fixed on his opponent, "so much the better for me, I can't wait to see the look of despair when you learn how foolish your vow is."

The proctor started the match and they both waited, neither made a move and chose to wait and see what the other one might do first, in the end, Zen-Aku decided that he might as well get this over with, he brought forth his dagger flute and began to play. It was his own song, not a song for the deer, but the song that he always played before a battle, it helped to calm his mind, Neji obviously saw this as a form of possible genjutsu or something, which is why he went in for an attack with a hit to the shoulder. What a mistake, as soon as the attack was done, the duke org suffered through the slight pain before in a flash grabbing the boy's attacking left hand with his right hand before it could retreat, and the right hand could come up for another attack. "Did you really think I couldn't see what it would take to defeat you, to defeat any Hyuga with such little experience, all I had to do was grab the attacking hand before it could retreat, and the other hand could come up and attack again. All of you Hyugas have the same habit, I think that's why your cousin is stronger then you, in her form of fighting, you don't solely rely on your arms to deal the damage, you don't retreat in your attacks, you just attack like a wild tiger," Zen-Aku stated with a smiled. The duke org squeezed his arm and cracking was clearly heard as the pressure was increased even further, Neji made to strike with his other hand but that was caught as well with the same thing happening to it, this was a short match.

"You bastard, you can't beat me, you're just a failure, just a failure like that disgrace that uses a style not like that of the gentle fist, I can't lose to you," Neji adamantly refused to lose to this guy, he couldn't ever lose to the likes of him. The pressure increased and Neji was grunting in pain and trying not to yell, when the pressure was taken even further you could clearly hear sounds of snapping as the bones were breaking and finally snapped his arms fully and broke the bone in two. The duke org let the form of Neji fall to the ground as he let out a silent scream in pain at having both his arms broken, Zen-Aku brought up his right leg and kicked the Hyuga up into the air before summoning his crescent blade in a flash. He stuck his blade out and let gravity take hold and finish the match for him by sending the boy back down and letting him be impaled through his back and out of his stomach, the duke org ended things by unsummoning his blade and letting the limp Neji fall.

"The winner of the match is Zen-Aku Uzumaki by way of death," the proctor announced as everyone else remained in stupefied awe at just how easily the genin of the previous year was killed before cheering was heard, it was from Alyssa of all people. She didn't like death in any form, but she also knew that no matter what she said, she wasn't able to talk him out of killing Neji, but since she was a ninja now and was supposed to get used to death anyways, she decided to get passed it and cheer on her love. When she saw him turn his head and she just knew he was sending her a wolfish grin, she couldn't help but blush at him and cheer on a little more, it was fine with her that she was the only one cheering, too caught up in the excitement to care who saw her.

Zen-Aku winked at Alyssa before making his way to the waiting area and looked on as the next match was to be called, but there was obviously a delay since they were discussing weather or not to disqualify him for being late or not, which was pointless. If he's not here, he deserves to be disqualified, there was no reason to actually not disqualify him, the dignitaries would just have to put up with not getting to see Sasuke and working with having him fight with Gaara in the next round, that would be better. Seeing as how the proctor just announced that they would continue and postpone his match and jump ahead to the next match, they refused to listen to what was truly needed here, and instead chose to show favoritism, what a foolish old man. Then Kankuro decided to withdraw and not even show any of what he could do, did that mean that he didn't have any desire to become chunin, it was a coin toss with that one, luckily Temari decided to fight. This one wasn't that much of a battle, more of Shikamaru extending his shadow and Temari keeping her distance for a while until the shadow was beyond half of the wall and Temari couldn't dodge, but in the end, he just gave up, zero motivation that one. Then came Ino's smartest decision yet, she chose to withdraw from the match instead of try and get killed because of Temari, it was a wise decision, not the most noble when it came to honor or pride, but it was the smart one, so that had to be given to her.

Zen-Aku just stood there and watched as the winner returned to the waiting area and the proctor announced that they had to wait another ten minutes before the match with Sasuke was going to be called either way, if he wasn't here already, he didn't deserve to be a chunin or fight. After a few minutes of waiting, they finally showed up in a swirl of leaves, and by they, Zen-Aku saw that both Sasuke and Kakashi finally showed up, Sasuke now wore a black outfit instead of a navy blue one, he seemed stronger, but that could just be for show.

Zen-Aku didn't see the need to be in the waiting area and decided to go check in on how Alyssa was doing, he saw her watching everything while keeping an eye on him and saw that he was looking her way, so she smiled and waved at him with a big smile. He saw this as his cue to speed over in a burst of his shadow form and got to her quite quickly and stood in front of her, everyone else was too focused on the current match to notice him, which wasn't that important to him, only one he needed to worry about was her. "I hope you don't mind if I sit here, standing over with the others has tired out this old wolf's legs," he said as he filled the seat beside her without waiting for her response.

"Oh of course, such an old wolf needs his old joints to be well rested after standing for so long," Alyssa said back to him with a teasing smile, she's made peace with the fact that Zen-Aku himself is also in there a long time ago and can even joke about it.

They watched the final match together while holding each other's hands and saw that Sasuke was using taijutsu to get around Gaara's sand, but he must have known that it wasn't enough, so they watched until Gaara encased himself inside of a hard sand shell. That was when Sasuke revealed that he was now capable of performing the chidori, after the chidori hit the shell and pierced it, that was when the chakra of a tailed beast was felt by Zen-Aku, Shukaku had awoken, and he felt quite angry.

"Interesting, Kakashi not only worked on Sasuke's speed, which was the only effective way to counteract Gaara's sand, he also taught an A-rank jutsu such as that to him, possibly on par with a regular rasengan," Alyssa commented.

"True, but that attack did something they didn't expect, while it did pierce his shell, it also helped to awaken Gaara's inner demon, the one tailed Shukaku is now on edge and I have yet to make a usable seal for the out of control demon," Zen-Aku commented.

Gaara sent a hand of Shukaku to hit Sasuke, but he got away from it and let everyone see part of the sand spirit, the shell cracked and disintegrated to sand showing a Gaara holding his shoulder that was bleeding immensely, he was also panting quite hard. All of a sudden though, white feathers were coming down from out of nowhere, and it was making them drowsy, with only a nod to each other, Alyssa and Zen-Aku performed a genjutsu release in an instant as to see what was going on. It looked like all of the ninja that sensed it in time was able to release it as well, including all the jonin senseis and Sakura, but before anything else was done, there was an explosion in the hokage's booth, not only that, but there was another at the other side of the village. Multiple ninja from the sound burst forth from the audience and made to attack those that weren't under the genjutsu that put those in the audience asleep, another crash was heard, and a giant three headed snake was seen in the distance to the east.

Zen-Aku brought forth his crescent blade before turning to his left just as Alyssa activated her byakugan and turned to her right and prepared to strike with her hand seemingly aimed at his head before in a flash there was a splash of blood. There were two sound ninjas behind them both, the one behind Alyssa had the crescent blade sticking out of his back while the one behind Zen-Aku had his heart pushed form his chest from the force of her attack. "You really should watch your back, that sound ninja would have easily killed you if I didn't summon my blade quick enough," he commented at her, it was almost scary good how in sync they were sometimes.

"I could say the same for you, but as long as you have my back, I don't see why I would ever need to watch it myself," she commented right back to him, clashing was heard all around them and the snake was still wreaking havoc.

They each retracted their weapons from the bodies and let them hit the floor before Zen-Aku reached into his pocket and pulled out his alligator and hammerhead crystals, "you actually have to, use these or your own to even the playing field, I'll keep the wolf."

"Fine, be safe in going after Gaara, and don't destroy the village to bad, we still live here you know," Alyssa said before she kissed him on the cheek before summoning forth her white tiger and riding it to confront the snake.

Zen-Aku went over to where Kakashi was and saw that Sakura was about to wake up Shikamaru whenever he revealed that he was awake the whole time and hoping to stay out of an A-ranked mission, lazy bum. Kakashi was about to be blindsided at one point, that was when the duke org made his presence known by cutting the random sound ninja down with his crescent blade before grabbing a random kunai from the air and throwing it to kill the sound ninja who threw it. "I'm guessing we're going to stop Sasuke and either take Gaara down or find some place to stay safe and await further orders," he guessed and received a nod in return, a nod from both Kakashi and a dog he summoned to lead them to the boy.

"Yes, now you, Shikamaru, Sakura, and Pakkun are all to go and stop him, find some place to stay low and await further orders, now go," Kakashi ordered and the duke org headed straight through the wall with enough force to break it easily. He stayed in the new hole for a moment before turning back and motioning for them to follow, they did so and took off as fast as they could in the direction Sasuke was going, they used the trees to follow instead of the ground.

Zen-Aku heard a crash and saw that Alyssa had brought forth the alligator to take on the snake, and she calls him a showoff when she's making a spectacle about taking on a giant snake, cheeky little kitten. A giant claw bashed the snake across one of its heads before a tail was seen hitting the alligator, who then returned with another giant claw to another head before following up with a tail swipe to keep the snake off balance before it was another claw strike.

Alyssa had that fight in the bag, all he had to do was keep Gaara at bay and then let the emergency protocols of the leaf take care of the sound ninja that tried to take their home, and all he needed to do was make sure they weren't followed. He made a quick shadow-clone before sending it to make sure no enemy ninja could get to close to following them, good thing he had power that could rival a jonin, and any pursuers they had were high chunin at best, not at all jonin. As they kept going, Pakkun smelled the trouble but also smelled the duke org's clone killing all of them in a haze of bloody crescent waves and overpowered attacks to make a show of his power but was sure to keep one alive to spread the legend of the wolf duke org, Zen-Aku. Pakkun lead them through the woods as fast as they could, in time, Sasuke stopped for a brief moment before he started going again, an enemy he was fighting hot on his trail, pretty soon he caught up to them again before he was on the move again. They had to go around some fighting that was between two people, one was probably Shino, didn't sit to well that his opponent withdrew, so he's taking on Kankuro, but they had a mission, so they avoided the personal fight and headed to catch up with Sasuke. Soon, Sasuke and the other two stopped, they seemed to stay in one place and allowed the team to catch up to them, they sped up their pace and soon arrived at the sight of Sasuke on his stomach with the curse mark activated and Gaara about to kill him. So, Zen-Aku shadow phased to the attacked jinchuriki and delivered a right hook right to the offender's face and made him spin a little as he headed backwards and landed in a tree before he re-balanced himself and got ready to go again with a feral look in his eyes.

"You two should leave with Sasuke, I'll be fine, just need to teach the little runt what happens when you mess with big brother," Zen-Aku said cryptically, earning him confused looks from the other two members of the team, but not the dog.

"I thought I smelt something familiar so you're a jinchuriki too, never thought I'd meet one as mentally stable as you though, come on kids, let the wolf take on the raccoon over there," Pakkun ordered, the other two seemed reluctant to leave him alone.

"You can stay there if you wish, just don't get in my way, this isn't going to be a fight between ninja, it's going to be a fight between two monsters," Zen-Aku raised his chakra to extreme heights and let them know that he could take on Gaara alone.

"We won't leave you alone, but we also won't get in your way, try to stay safe," Sakura demanded before her and Shikamaru grabbed Sasuke and was about to leave when Gaara tried to jump over and kill them, he didn't get very far with the duke org in the way. In trying to get past, Zen-Aku grabbed hold of Gaara's left foot and with his left hand and casually tossed him to where he hit a tree, and broke it in two, when another attempt was made, the duke org uppercut the boy and sent him slamming into a tree.

"How, how are you so strong, how many people have you killed, how many lives have you taken, how can you be able to appose me, what are you," Gaara yelled out in his primal state, he really has lost his mind if he didn't remember who he was.

"Fine, I'll tell you, my name is Zen-Aku Uzumaki, the wolf duke org, the outcast, the pariah, the demon brat, the hell spawn, the most unpredictable ninja in the leaf village, and the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox," Zen-Aku announced, the others gasped from the news. "You guys should fall back, take Sasuke and wait over there with Temari while I knock some sense into our brother, I say our because Gaara may be her brother, but he's also my fellow jinchuriki, so I need to teach little brother not to mess with big brother." Gaara transformed again and covered his entire upper body in sand and looked just like a miniature Shukaku with human legs, he made a mad dash for the duke org and intended to hit him with an overgrown sand fist, and just as it was about to reach him, the unexpected happened. Zen-Aku brought out his hand, but something about it was off, instead of a black hand trying to catch a giant sand coated fist, a giant red claw caught the giant sand fist, a red claw that was coated in red fur and white nails, a claw that reeked of hate, and power. "You see Gaara, it's not about how many I've killed, even though it has been a lot in the countless centuries I've lived, it's not the loneliness that makes me strong, not the love I have for myself, I don't love myself, not the hate for those that abused me. No, the thing that makes me strong isn't even the nine-tails and his power, the one thing that makes me stronger then you is that if you rampaged around, you'd run into Alyssa, and I can't allow you to hurt the one woman in this entire village that I love."

Zen-Aku threw the hand away and speed straight for Gaara in a rush of speed and hit him with a furry of punches aimed at the monster's midsection before said monster used its tail to swipe at the duke org and caused him to jump over mister one and land behind him. With the tail not guarding the lower form, he was able to summon his crescent blade and used his crescent wave to destroy most of his armor in one motion, since the armor must be weakest at that point, and with the explosion that followed, he was right. The sand looked like it just got done being made into the pillow for the whole of the Akimichi clan, the duke org thought now would be a good time to continue the attack, he went in and used his crescent blade to cut off all of the rest of the sand from him. After that was done, the duke org kicked Gaara to the ground before sending a bolt of lighting he generated from his horn to strike the fallen boy, and since he heard sounds of him screaming in pain, he guessed that did the trick, the boy was done with this battle. It wasn't until he heard more screaming then what should be that he thought something was wrong, that was when the entirety of Shukaku came forth and toward over the trees in the forest like a giant raccoon.

Zen-Aku had his own tricks though, to start off with, he brought forth his flute dagger and started to play a rhythm before the wolf zord he had in his possession came forth and looked ready to fight already, it didn't help the situation when Gaara cast the play possum jutsu. The jutsu put him to sleep and allowed the full consciousness of Shukaku to come forth, the battle between wolf and raccoon wasn't too long, mainly Shukaku shooting at wolf with air style: air bullets and wolf dodging before the duke org jumped into the fight. While Shukaku was distracted with the wolf zord, Zen-Aku used that as a good opportunity to shadow phase to Gaara and punch him between the eyes before going a little bit farther and round house kicking the boy in the side of the head, that should wake him up a little bit. When he saw that Gaara was awake, he did something else as well, he brought up his left knee and slammed it into his chin to ensure the tailed beast would be gone for quite some time, a lesson learned through a physical beating is just as good as a good sit down. The sand demon crumbled away to dust and fell on top of a tree below, Zen-Aku landed on the opposing tree and stood there with his arms crossed and back rigid, the boy looked beat up and keeping chakra flowing for that long took its toll on him. The boy was struggling to even stand from the attacks that he was dealt, but he tried one more time, he jumped and intended to hit the duke org with a right hook, but that was grabbed and was given a fist to his gut for his troubles before he fell to the forest floor.

"How, how are you so strong, with everything that has happened, how are so much stronger then me, why, why do I have to disappear," Gaara asked out loud as he laid on the ground, he saw that Zen-Aku was approaching him.

"I don't think you understand, just because you kill doesn't mean you are providing meaning to your existence, you are lessening it, you have experienced what few others have though, true loneliness, but you are not alone. You have both your siblings with you, they do love you as well Gaara, they just don't show it because you cause them to be afraid of you, you turned yourself into the monster they saw you as, but you are young, you have an entire lifetime to grow as a person. I'll make you a promise as a fellow jinchuriki, I will find a seal to fix you and make you sane again, until then, let others in and allow them to see a side of you that you don't show others, a side that protects those that are precious to him," Zen-Aku said before walking away. He felt the presence of Kankuro and Temari approaching, what happened next for them was a private affair, so he walked away and back to his team where Sakura and Shikamaru was watching over Sasuke, who was looking better and in a sitting position.

"I don't think we'll have to worry about that Gaara guy anytime soon, how did you do all that, and what was with you saying something about being a jinchuki for the nine-tailed fox," Sakura asked him when he was within sight.

"It's jinchuriki, it means I'm like a scroll and seal away the nine-tails from the rest of the world, that hand you saw was part of his body, meaning I can take on his form without becoming him, I also keep my sanity with the seal used to seal it away. You all were lied to when told that the nine-tailed fox was killed by the forth hokage, in truth, he sealed it into me when I was just under an hour old, that is why you see everyone avoid me on the streets, the older generation didn't take kindly to the sealing. In the end though, with Gaara being a fellow jinchuriki like me, and me being talented in sealing, I promised to find a way to fix him, that way he can sleep and regain what sanity he lost, in the meantime, I think Sasuke needs to get that fixed." Zen-Aku mentioned before motioning towards Sasuke's curse mark, "and don't worry about the outcome of your fight, you were up against an unstable jinchuriki, anyone other than a jinchuriki would have lost, so you might just be promoted to chunin based on how far you got alone."

"Well, isn't that comforting to know, you know Naruto, you might not be as much of a loser as I thought," Sasuke said with a friendly smirk on his face as he allowed himself to fall asleep, he knew his friends would watch over him now.

* * *

A few days later

The third hokage was dead, killed when Orochimaru attacked the kage booth and fought with the old man in what was considered kage level combat using both the first and second hokage, but in the end, Hiruzen sealed away both of their spirits and done damage to Orochimaru's arms. It was an important day, a victory, and a loss, victory over the sound and sand invasion forces, but a loss at losing a wise kage, no matter what may have happened in the past, that never made it the right thing to have a once trusted figure die before amends could be made. Now, here Zen-Aku and Alyssa are, at his funeral, with neither having made amends with the man who they, of all people, should have understood the situation he was forced to go through, he hoped that people would show their best, even though he knew he shouldn't. They wore the standard attire worn for a funeral, all black, Zen-Aku still wore his mask, only Alyssa knew his face was still like that of a wolf, a little more human to be sure, but still closer to a wolf than human, everything else was just that of the funeral attire. Neither had a scratch on them while many others had bandages from all the fights they endured while the invasion had taken place, but the thought of not reconciling with the third hokage caused a bit more damage than they had ever felt. They stood side by side in the crowd, just a random spot in the crowd, couldn't face the man's picture from the guilt they were feeling, and many others could be seen crying for the third, not them, they let no emotion show on their faces, they couldn't. Zen-Aku was a warrior, he knew what it meant to be one, be a ninja, be the hokage, fight for what you believed in, he wouldn't cry at a warrior's death, he would celebrate and honor his memory, he would sing his name with the others, but he would not cry. Alyssa would not cry because she was to guilt-ridden, she was the one who tricked the hokage into telling Naruto who his parents were, she was the one who got him mad at the third, so she wouldn't let herself cry, she started it, so she couldn't shed a tear over it.

"In time we will move past this, you may feel guilty about it now, but do not forget, we have something many do not, perspective, we will get over this pain, but not by forgetting it, we will by using this pain to remember him for the good, not the bad." Zen-Aku whispered to her as he grabbed her hand, that was when she felt it, his hand was trembling a little, he was trying to be strong, to not cry at how the hokage died, he died like a warrior in the eyes of the duke org, so he wouldn't cry for the way he died.

"Yes, we will use this pain to help guide us, help guide the memory of a good man who did what he thought was right, a man who protected the village until his dying breath, the man that was a grandfather to us all," Alyssa whispered back. Zen-Aku always did know how to bring a smile to her face, when it was just Naruto as well, they made her smile every time she was hated on by her clan, cheered her up when she felt a little homesick, he didn't even know the reason, he just wanted to cheer her up. The last few days had been one filled with death, the next while may be even more so, but in the end, they will get past it, they will hold their heads high and take on whatever comes their way, the time to die is gone, now it was time to live.


	5. Finding a Hokage

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 5

Finding a Hokage

It has been a week since the funeral of the third hokage, Zen-Aku and Alyssa were in the middle of training using dummies for kunai practice, he was up first so he jumped in the air and hung there for a moment before spinning throwing kunai at seemingly random spots. Thuds were heard all around and when they both looked, every kunai that he had thrown landed on the target, even the impossible target behind the boulder was hit with a kunai in the middle, all in all, it was the level of a perfect marksmen. Alyssa went next, and she did something different, she jumped in the air and instead of spinning, she flipped while throwing the kunai, each one hit their targets and even hit the one behind the boulder just as Zen-Aku's had done, she grinned at him after that. They continued to do this until it was a little later in the day, and after they decided to go and get something to eat at Ichiraku ramen for dinner, and then go get some cinnamon rolls for dessert, ramen was Zen-Aku's favorite while Alyssa's was the rolls. As they were eating the ramen, Jiraiya came in looking for the two of them and told them to follow him as he began to speak, "I need you two to come with me, we're going to go pick up orgy's godmother and bring her to the village to become the new hokage."

"You interrupted our dinner together for that, is there a huge rush to find Tsunade or do you just love to interrupt our time together," Zen-Aku asked with a small growl, this was how it went most times, the pervert always interrupted their time together, almost like he had it all planned out.

"Listen, I don't mean to do it, just the circumstances present need this to be done quickly, so go pack up your stuff so we can head out as soon as possible," Jiraiya affirmed, it was a little suspicious though, the way he wanted them out of the village in a big hurry as if something was happening.

"Fine, me and Alyssa will go pack our stuff for the trip, we'll meet you at the gate of the village in a bit," Zen-Aku said before he and Alyssa turned and began walking to the apartment they now shared, she moved in after Zen-Aku killed Neji since they expected retaliation at some point.

"We're going to leave behind shadow clones aren't we," Alyssa asked in a whisper so that Jiraiya couldn't hear, the duke org nodded after they rounded a corner so that Jiraiya didn't see, "I'll use byakugan to find out what's going on then, I just hope it's nothing too troubling." She quickly activated her byakugan and went to work scanning the village, she was surprised in what she saw, "at the river where some boats are kept is a fight between Itachi and another unknown man facing off against Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma."

"We can't have the pervert finding out, so we'll just use the shadow clones to gauge the enemy strength, our leaving might even lead them away from the village," he guessed as he picked her up so that they reached the apartment in a flash of shadow speed and got ready for their mission. They looked to each other and nodded before he went over to her and put his right hand on her head and gave her some of Kurama's chakra, this would let her make a sturdy shadow clone like him, so they can get more information on what they needed together.

All four of them nodded before going their own ways, the clones to meet with Itachi and the unknown man, the originals to meet with Jiraiya and go find Tsunade, each mission was important, so they needed to be extra careful on what they did and said about themselves. The clones arrived just in time to see Guy use a leaf hurricane to repel the man with blue skin and a sword wrapped up in white cloth, they decided to make their moves and attack Itachi head on, Zen-Aku went in with his crescent blade while Alyssa used her tiger style. Their goal was not to kill or harm in any way, Itachi must have sensed this and played along before they acted like they were pushing him back to the forest to his and his partners backs, Itachi was barely trying to dodge their swings. Asuma and Guy were about to jump in and assist them, but the shark man that Itachi came with got in their way while Itachi was busy, and that was when Zen-Aku and Alyssa saw their chance to act, so Alyssa fell back while Zen-Aku locked blades with Itachi. "When we retreat, follow us or you'll never learn where who you're looking for is," he whispered to the Uchiha who narrowed his eyes slightly but gave a subtle nod that he accepts, thus the duke org fell back and him and Alyssa ran for the woods, Itachi giving chase.

They ran and headed straight for a space in the woods that allowed them all to talk, privately, but when they arrived they made sure to activate some privacy seals so that they could talk privately, they also made sure that they weren't followed by the others. "I've never seen anyone use privacy seals outdoors, or anywhere other than in offices, usually they can't count for everything in the forest, and since an official's office is already sound resistant to begin with, the seal is added security," Itachi commented stoically.

"I created them, I've learned a lot regarding my Uzumaki heritage, but I guess you don't recognize me in this form, my name is Zen-Aku Uzumaki, formerly known as Naruto Uzumaki, the jinchuriki to the nine-tailed fox," Zen-Aku reintroduced with a small bow.

"I'm Alyssa Hyuga, formerly known as Hinata Hyuga, it's been a while Itachi Uchiha, we've come to see why you killed off your own clan, Zen-Aku seems to think that the Uchiha were planning a coup and that the elders, or one of them at least, gave you the mission to kill everyone. I think that someone infiltrated the village and forced you to do it, so you could join the very organization that you are in right now, can you please tell us which one is right because we made a bet and I really want to win," Alyssa asked with a pleading face.

Itachi weighed his options, if he dispelled the shadow clones, then they would know that he was after them to keep his cover, but they seem to think they're safe, so they must be with someone they think can take him on, possibly Jiraiya of the sanin, or they've gained considerable strength. There was also the fact that this is a custom made silencing seal, meaning they could also be a barrier that prevented him from leaving until those that cast it were either out of chakra or dispelled it on their own, it could be the originals, or it could be shadow clones. Then there was the fact that they just flat out guessed what happened, maybe not the details, but the fact that they guessed a coup and that someone did approach him to persuade him to join the organization he was with, they have groan quite a bit in the last few years. He sighed a soft and small sigh before answering, "Zen-Aku was right, an elder ordered the massacre, but there was an individual that invited me to join the Akatsuki, but he never made a big threat like what I did, how did you two guess that those might be the causes of the massacre?"

"Well, my soul isn't from this world, I come from a different world called earth, I was sent here on a mission and had three animal souls implanted in me, elephant for my mind, deer for my health and immune system, and tiger for strength, the elephant helped me to guess," Alyssa informed.

"I was her mission, which she technically failed by the way, she was supposed to come here and keep the mask from being put on by anyone, which is why she failed because as you can plainly see, it's on someone, but back to your question as to how I was able to guess what happened. She has the experience of an eighteen-year-old combined with her thirteen years as Hinata, plus the elephant soul in her, thus making her thirty-one-year-old mind possibly the smartest on the planet, but my reasoning is quite different. Adding on the experience from Naruto's thirteen years, I also have the age of a several millennia under my belt, using that to determine you were being forced into killing them was easy," Zen-Aku informed the Uchiha as he stood with crossed arms while leaning against a tree.

"But don't worry, we're not going to tell anyone, that would risk your mission, we might tell the new hokage, since that would be needed after all, but other then that, we won't be telling anyone, so don't worry," Alyssa assured him with a nice smile before pulling out a container of eyedrops. "Before I forget, I read up on what can happen with the over use of your Sharingan, these eyedrops should help with any blindness or irritation, sadly they aren't a cure for what you have, but this will help you," she gave him the eyedrops and he made sure to put it away safely.

"Thank you, since you two know and are on my side again, I want you two to do something for me, keep Sasuke in the village, make him grow strong enough to challenge me, to kill me even, you don't have to, but this is a superior's request, so consider it," Itachi asked them, he knew he could trust them.

"Fine, we'll help Sasuke get stronger, but it may involve him going out of the village for a little while, but he will get stronger, you have our word that he will, just don't be too shocked when you face him and what he's learned," Zen-Aku stated with a teasing tone of voice.

"Very well, I believe that I must get going, no telling what kind of damage Kisame will do if he's left alone, it was nice seeing you two again," Itachi said with a small smile and was about to turn and walk away, but he had to ask something, "what was the stipulation of the bet you two made."

They two of them blushed very dark and shifted awkwardly, the stipulation for if Zen-Aku won was a private little fantasy that Naruto always had when he finally lost his virginity, and it was quite dirty, it took him a while to even get Alyssa to agree to it. Alyssa's win would have something else, she would make a little white tiger power ranger attire, an exact replica of what she used to wear, and she and Zen-Aku would do a little skit for their first time, she could see it in her mind now, it wouldn't go away. With the two of them still having blushes on their faces, they turned to him simultaneously and yelled out, "none of your business Itachi-sensei," before turning their backs on him and crossing their arms while not looking at each other as well. Yep, it wasn't really a few times that they met him while he was picking up Sasuke, that was all the public saw, in private, he taught them quite a bit about being a shinobi, including the lesson that deception is their greatest tool.

"I still can't believe you two talked me into ever teaching you two anything, regardless, be well, I might see your originals soon as well, so I'll say hi to you two again then, farewell," with that, Itachi left calmly back to where he heard some fighting.

When he was gone, the couple let out a breath and turned back to face each other, a little pink was still dusting their cheeks, but no other sign of anything, "since I did technically win, I'll give you a handicap and wait until you're ready, but don't keep me waiting." Zen-Aku said with a wolfish grin behind his mask before dispelling himself and puffing out of existence before Alyssa could stop him, she was left standing there stuttering to herself before she just decided to just dispel herself as well.

* * *

With the originals

The first one to get the memories of the clone was obviously Zen-Aku, who was waiting for the memories to get to Alyssa as well, when they did, she couldn't hide her blush from him and kept her head down muttering something about cheeky duke orgs having unfair life experience. Jiraiya noticed the blush and the slight widening of the eyes at a random moment and recognized the signs that a shadow clone's memories have come back, so he groaned in frustration as he slumped his shoulders a bit, "you know why we left in a big rush, don't you?"

"Would it make you feel any better if we said we did, or change anything, we still came with you to get Tsunade and that's all we said we'd do, never said we wouldn't leave behind a shadow clone or anything," Zen-Aku said with a slight shrug and cheeky grin.

"Fine, the Akatsuki will be coming after you from now on, so you either need to stay on the move or grow stronger, and even though you are already pretty strong, you still need to get stronger, and I'm pretty sure you've already master the rasengan," Jiraiya guessed. When he received a nod from both of them, he widened his eyes in shock, "you mean you both have it down now," they both nodded their heads again, "fine, next will be teaching you how to add a chakra affinity to the rasengan, and for that I need to know what you got."

"You can stop right there, mine's wind and Alyssa's water, and we began that training a while ago, now we just need to learn to add both affinities to our rasengan, dad mentioned that he had a theory in his notes, we just need to apply it," Zen-Aku stated as they continued to walk.

"You know, you're to smart for your own good, I taught your father, so I think I should be given a little credit, is there anything that you are having trouble with at least," Jiraiya asked, the millennia old org and elephant souled kid are too smart, and too powerful at times.

"We are having some trouble with a pervert that's about to step in some dog doo," Alyssa commented before said pervert actually stepped in the pile of dog doo while the other two kept walking as if nothing happened, Jiraiya pouted all the way to Otafuku town.

When they reached the town, Jiraiya decided to check them in at an inn before he followed a black-haired beauty and left the kids to their own devices, they chose to just head for the room and have a little talk about the bet they made, the first one to speak was Alyssa. "When exactly were you planning on having our first time, my past upbringing had me believe sixteen was the start of when it was socially acceptable, but lately I've heard other kunoichi talk and they said that if you're old enough to kill, old enough to drink and have sex."

"I wasn't planning on the time, I was going to leave that entirely to you from the start, I'm not about to force you into doing something you're not ready for, it was just a fantasy of mine from when I thought about the uses of shadow clones, so it doesn't have to be our first time," Zen-Aku admitted.

"Okay, that means that even though we're going with your method, I get to determine when we do it, that's fine with me," Alyssa stated as she moved from sitting on the bed to where he was leaning against the window sill, "and I won't make you wait long, promise."

"Good, because I have had some built-up frustration for over a few millennia, orgs aren't exactly the type you want as a partner in bed, especially the female type, creepy," he mentioned with a shudder as she stood in front of him with a smile before wrapping her arms around his neck when noticed.

"Oh, my poor little wolf, don't worry, Alyssa is here to make it all better," she said before taking his mask off and kissing his humanoid muzzle, his mouth was perfect to her, it wasn't like a wolf's and wasn't like a human's, it was the perfect blend of them, and fit him perfectly as well.

Lemon

Zen-Aku started to embrace Alyssa while they kissed, pulling her form closer to his own, she deepened the kiss as well, bringing her hands down and grabbing the sides of his neck to pull him as close to herself as possible, that was as far as he could take before he surprised her. He picked her up a little bit while they were in each other's arms and moved them to the bed, gently laying her on her back as he kept them connected through the mouth, his hands began to roam around her body, gently touching her skin in a smooth caress. She couldn't contain herself any longer and she reached up to take hold of the back of his neck as she let her lips part a little to let her tongue ask for permission to enter past his lips, he didn't dare to refuse her request, in fact, this was part of the plan. As she was distracted with the feel of his lips pressed against her own, he softly rubbed his right hand down her surprisingly curvy side before bringing it to her perfectly toned thigh, making sure that the touch was nothing but euphoric to her, which it was without him having to try very hard. She was so enraptured by the feeling of his hands on her body and their connected mouths that she failed to notice his hand traveling up to a certain spot between her legs until it was too late and in a surprise twist, began to rub on her clit through her panties. She let out a gasping moan, but didn't break the kiss, or resist in any way, she actually pulled him even closer, as if it were possible, they were practically sharing the same space as it was, and that is when he took it upon himself to go even further. Taking his middle finger, he lowered his hand until it was at the perfect spot to start caressing her tight lower lips, taking in how she was moaning into the kiss that only seemed to take away more of her breath the longer it went on, that didn't stop him though. Eventually, she could no longer breath and had to break the kiss for some air, by now she was panting and moaning from what he was doing to her lower lips, "I thought you said our fist time would be with the clones," she asked between the moans and pants.

"I did, and it will be, but that doesn't mean we can't push the envelope and go as far as we can, prepare us for the feelings that we can expect with our fist time," he stated before moving her panties out of the way and rubbing her lower lips directly, the effects were instant. Her body tensed as another gasping moan escaped her, he took a chance at this moment and decided to bring his left hand from the side of her head to her right breast, all while lightly touching her soft and perfectly smooth and light skin. He softly kneaded her small and still forming mounds with his left hand while his right was still rubbing her lower lips, she couldn't remember the last time she felt so euphoric, oh that's right, she's never felt this good, not in her entire lives has she felt this amount of pleasure from someone's touch. This feeling that she had was something she never wanted to let go of, and they haven't even gotten to actual sex yet, but the feelings she was currently feeling was so wonderful that her mind was starting to go blank, and she was starting to feel something in her stomach. It felt like a pressure was building and building and was only growing the more he rubbed at her lower lips and kneading her breasts, and she had no idea what possessed him to do what he did next, but she hoped he never stopped pushing further until she needed him inside of her for real. He gently took his middle finger that was caressing her lower lips from them and did something that left her gasping for breath, with his thumb and index finger he pinched her clit, with his middle and ring finger he poked them in her lower lips and put his pinky in her butthole. He gently dipped his fingers in and out of her holes while his pinch was rubbing her clit, and with each passing second that he gently pumped his hands in and out of her lower lips, the pressure that she had been feeling was building and building and just as she was about to release it…

Lemon end

There was a knock at the door that interrupted them and their fun, Zen-Aku got furious that someone would interrupt them again, it was more than likely the pervert, Alyssa was upset that someone interrupted her bliss, until she used her byakugan to see who it was. He stomped right to the door and swung it open and glared at who disturbed them, he saw Itachi and Kisame there and waiting to speak, but Zen-Aku beat them to it, "you both interrupted something that has had far too many interruptions, come back another time." That was when he slammed the door in the two's faces and turned back to Alyssa, only to find her looking blankly at him and shake her head no, "I let my anger take over, didn't I," he asked, and she nodded, with a sigh he turned back and opened the door again. "What do you want," it sounded hateful, which is why he got smacked in the back of the head by her, he made a grunting growl noise before he spoke again, "sorry, what can we do for you fine gentlemen," he asked with a strained smile.

That was all Kisame could take before he burst out laughing at the scene before them, he was laughing so hard that he was on his knees and banging on the floor, "I can't believe the jinchuriki of the nine-tails is so whipped," he said before laughing some more.

They waited for a few more moments before the laughter died down to a chuckle, "are you done tuna breath," Zen-Aku asked with a blank stare, the result was instant, Kisame stopped chuckling and just looked at him with a shark's grin.

"You got a pair on you kid, especially for someone so whipped, tell me, does she ever let you get the top, or are you forced to go bottom," Kisame asked back, to the kid's credit though, he didn't even flinch at their presence, might just be playing it cool though.

"At least I actually get something, what woman would want to be with a shark man, at least wolves have a wild side to show the ladies, all you sharks want to do is rip into the first person you come across, and then keep going," Zen-Aku asked back with crossed arms.

Kisame was about to retort when Itachi silenced them, "enough, we don't have time for this, both of you are to come with us," he ordered, he really didn't want to have to fight the new Naruto, this Zen-Aku didn't seem like a pushover, probably wasn't either. That is when Itachi noticed the change in the air, the slight breathing that he knew by heart, "it's been a long time, Sasuke," he said and making everyone turn to see said person at the end of the hall, even Alyssa poked her head out to get a look.

Kisame glanced in that direction and noticed something, "well, the Sharingan, and he looks an awful lot like you, Itachi, who is this kid," he asked, clearly the Akatsuki weren't big on sharing information on one's own past, that's just great.

"He's my younger brother," Itachi informed while wondering why he was here, he wasn't supposed to be here, someone must have tipped him off that he was back for a moment before drawing the conclusion to come here to search, more than likely.

"That's strange, because the way I heard it, the whole Uchiha clan was wiped out, by you," Kisame stated with a grin, he was tempted to forget about going after the nine-tailed brat and just go for the mini Uchiha, who knew how good the kid was.

"Itachi Uchiha, I hope you're ready to die," Sasuke said before Itachi finally turned to look at him, "it's just as you said, brother, I've fostered my hatred for you all this time, I've lived my life for one single purpose, to see you die, it ends here." He activated a chidori during his little speech and it was fully matured by the end, but it was too powerful, some skin was starting to peel off from the hand the chidori was in, "you're dead," that was the last thing he said before he took off down the hall. Zen-Aku and Alyssa got out of their room and stood in the hallway, they just knew their room was about to get destroyed, and their guess was correct when the saw Itachi just redirect the chidori to destroy their room by grabbing the offending hand.

"That was quite anticlimactic, but I can't wait to see the look and Jiraiya's face when he sees that his stuff was destroyed and not ours," Alyssa whispered to the duke org, it was nice they could find humor in the situation, even if it was ill timed.

"I think it's time we helped, do you want to start, or should I," Zen-Aku asked her, she got into her tiger stance and ready to strike at a moment's notice, he summoned his crescent blade with a burst of org energy ready to take them on.

Then a burst of smoke burst forth and out came the voice of Jiraiya, "you two don't know me at all, do ya, should have done your homework, Jiraiya the Toda Sage falls victim to no woman's charm, Rare beauties drop from me like blossoms in a storm. It isn't in my nature to be duped by the wiles of women, when you reach the stature I have, the ladies kneel and worship at your awesomeness," he said this as if he was cool in a kabuki style.

"I bet he thinks that sounded so cool for an entrance, do you want to just let him take care of it, I don't feel like fighting today," Alyssa asked Zen-Aku, she was mad at them for disrupting what they were doing in the room though.

"Yeah, we'll let the toad sage deal with this, not like we needed his help to begin with, but oh well," Zen-Aku stated before unsummoning his crescent blade and stepping back behind Jiraiya with Alyssa in perfect sync, they knew they didn't have to worry about Sasuke.

Kisame chuckled at seeing this, "Master Jiraiya, I must say, you're something of a disappointment, a lecherous old man with the disposition of a child, it's almost impossible to believe that you are one of the three Legendary Sannin. You even managed to release the genjutsu we cast on her, eh," Kisame asked after seeing the limp woman on Jiraiya's shoulder, Zen-Aku wordlessly, and a bit roughly, took the woman from the old pervert and laid her against the wall.

"What kind of coward would do something like that, using his Sharingan to inflict an illusion jutsu on an innocent woman, all in order to separate Zen-Aku and me, I know he's the one you're really after," Jiraiya deduced, quite late to the party, nice to try though.

This earned a gasp from Sasuke, somehow he got sent to the floor when they weren't looking, "that explains how Kakashi knew, now I understand, he learned it from you, you're right, Zen-Aku is the prize the Akatsuki are after and we will have him," Itachi stated.

"No way you're getting Zen-Aku, and actually, this is all very convenient, I can eliminate you both at the same time," Jiraiya commented and looked to be preparing to fight if the gathering of chakra that Alyssa sensed in him was anything to go by.

"Stay out of this," Sasuke ordered, he was up and looked to be ready for round two now, "the only one who's going to eliminate him is me," to be honest, everyone there knew the boy was no match for Itachi, but he still needed to learn that the hard way.

"Go away, you don't interest me at the moment," Itachi stated, and it was true, at the moment Sasuke was not strong enough, so Itachi couldn't really be bothered with someone currently too weak to kill him.

"Well get interested," Sasuke roared as he made to punch his older brother, Itachi just basically lifted his leg and lightly tapped Sasuke with it, which caused the younger brother to go flying back first into the wall at the end of the hallway. Sasuke got up again, and ran for Itachi in a screaming rage for another punch, which was easily blocked by a barely trying Itachi, who countered with a sleeved elbow to the right cheek to the boy that sent him back at his starting position. Sasuke was slouched to the ground as he grunted out a, "not finished, this fight is mine," while trying to raise up and fight again, it was clear that the boy had a broken arm and maybe a concussion, but what did you expect when you face off against Itachi.

Itachi started to wordlessly walk forward to face Sasuke, Jiraiya was about to step in before Kisame got in the way, "you heard him old man, this fight is none of our business, let's let the two of them sort it out," he said as he held his sword warningly.

Itachi reached Sasuke, who roared as he went to attack his superior again, only for said man to knee the boy in the gut, the chopping at the back of his neck, kneeing him in the face, and then a straight punch to the gut, Sasuke was utterly helpless as he fell to the floor. Itachi leaned down and grabbed Sasuke by the collar with his left hand before slamming him against the wall, hand at his throat, "you're still too weak, you don't have enough hate," at this Itachi leaned in to Sasuke's ear, "and you know something, you never will."

Zen-Aku and Alyssa guessed that now Itachi placed Sasuke in the Tsukuyomi, because now Sasuke was screaming in pain from the mental damage that was being inflicted on him right now, well, mental damage for both Sasuke and Itachi, more than likely. "Isn't that heartwarming, using Tsukuyomi on his own brother," Kisame commented as they saw Sasuke's body go limp, must have passed out from the mental strain he was put under, not many can go against such an ordeal and remain conscious.

Jiraiya decided to act before Sasuke was killed for real, he went through a series of hand signs the walls and ceiling soon turned to a pink fleshy substance of some kind, "ninja art, toad mouth trap," he stated as Sasuke got sucked into a wall and away from Itachi. Kisame and his blade soon started to be swallowed as well, "you've both just been swallowed by the mountain toad, welcome my friends, to the belly of the beast, he has a very sensitive digestive tract, be careful not to upset him, not the most glorious way to die, is it? It must be humbling to know that you've been reduced to toad bait," he stated before giggling a little bit at the end, "Zen-Aku, Alyssa, stay still and remain calm, trust in my jutsu," he advised, before he looked back to them and noticed them playing cards.

"Kisame, come," Itachi ordered, it was time for them to leave, with the Sannin here, they were sure to fail, there was no real way for them to win against the new Naruto, this Zen-Aku, anyways, added on the Sannin and they couldn't win.

Kisame got his feet out with a good lift of the legs easy enough, when he began heading in his partner's direction, he found his sword was stuck, "easier said then done," he stated before using his strength to pry the sword from the gunk and ran after him.

"It's useless, the ninja hasn't been born who can survive this powerful stomach," Jiraiya stated before making very large tentacles made of stomach lining to speed off after the two, it seemed like they were going to be caught up in it.

"Don't look now, but there's a wall of flesh coming after us," Kisame stated as he peaked behind him and only saw flesh moving, he stopped momentarily to cut apart those that were almost to them before continuing on, "it's too fast, we won't make it, it's no use."

That's the last thing they heard before an explosion sounded throughout the stomach, the pervert of a toad sage ran off to see what it was, Zen-Aku and Alyssa following him, when they turned the corner, they saw a huge hole with black flames at the edge. Jiraiya sit down and began to inscribe a seal on a scroll, he did a few hand signs before calling out, "sealing jutsu, fire seal, now," chakra came from the scroll and pulled the black flames into it, sealing it with the symbol of fire marking it. "Alright, that takes care of that for the time being," he said as he put the scroll into his attire, "now for Sasuke," Sasuke himself was slowly being emerging from the wall of flesh, when he was about to fall down, Zen-Aku grabbed him and gently laid him against the wall.

"You are a fool, did you really think a mere genin with chunin level strength could go against someone of his caliber, Uchiha or not, he has years on you, what do you really have on him, nothing," Zen-Aku stated firmly, he just had to say it, even knowing he wasn't listening.

Jiraiya slammed his foot on the ground and the stomach started to retract into the crevasses of the hallway, after it was finished, a kunai was thrown and hit the opposing wall, when they looked at it, they turned and saw Guy running straight for Alyssa. He was about to do his dynamic entry when Zen-Aku grabbed his leg and effectively swung him at the wall instead of letting her get hurt in any way, how was that for a greeting, not to mention he did this with only one hand. After Guy stopped twitching and straightened up, he chuckled nervously, "I guess I was a little over enthusiastic, you see, I was trying to hurry and I couldn't see very clearly, I used my headband to peer into the opening and saw two sinister figures."

"Do you know what, if this is your way of saying sorry, it stinks, next time I'll just go ahead and break your leg in two," Zen-Aku stated with a glare, first their moment was interrupted, now Alyssa was almost attacked, will they ever have a moment to themselves.

"I'm sorry but it was just a simple misunderstanding," Guy said before he went quiet, too quiet for him, he seemed to be in deep thought before he spoke again, "I don't like you, I don't like that you killed Neji, but I do realize that is the life of a ninja, so you're forgiven."

"I didn't ask for your forgiveness, nor do I want or need it, but for now, we've got to get Sasuke to the medical corps at once, he's badly beaten up, his arm is broken, and he's been knocked out with Tsukuyomi, but all in all, he'll physically be alright. His mental stated is another matter entirely, after years of training and thinking of nothing but vengeance, he was taken out so easily, not to mention whatever he saw in the Tsukuyomi," Zen-Aku surmised calmly with his arms crossed as he was leaning on a wall.

"It was probably the murder of his clan, this may be the push that Orochimaru was looking for to turn Sasuke to his side, we should be prepared for that eventuality," Alyssa said calmly as well, years of training kept them from showing their smirks. It was true, they were smirking on the inside, they knew that the other was coming up with a plan at that very moment, most likely the same plan with different details, Itachi wanted to die by his brother's hands, instructed them to help, and they will. A good student never goes against their sensei's orders, questions them at times, sure, but never acts against them, and they were good students, very good students, so they will follow his orders, might make things a little difficult, but will follow them.

"I'm sorry Guy, I wanted to let Sasuke fight his own fight, I see now I should have intervened sooner," Jiraiya stated, he'll ask the other two about how they knew the name of the jutsu later, might even see what else they know and aren't telling him.

"What we need is a supreme medical specialist, a master of healing arts, and soon," Guy surmised, which was correct, luckily, they were on their way to find said person when they were interrupted by this little detour.

"You're right, and the woman you're talking about is the one we've come to find, another of the Legendary Sannin, the queen of slugs and elixirs, the gambling fool and mistress of the healing arts, Lady Tsunade," Jiraiya informed the man while trying to sound 'cool' in front of others.

Outside of the town

Guy was standing with Sasuke on his back and parting ways with Jiraiya, Zen-Aku, and Alyssa, "alright Guy, we'll leave Sasuke in your hands," Jiraiya said, of course they will, why did he think they were letting Guy take the kid back to the village as he was, what an idiot.

Guy stared intensely at them for a bit before he spoke with a smile, "master Jiraiya, find the lady Tsunade, bring her back to us," of course they were going to do that, that was why they were even out of the village in the first place, did he hear nothing they just talked about.

"Why do you think we're here to begin with, now get the boy back to the village, we have searching to do," Zen-Aku stated before he turned to walk away, Alyssa joining him, let the fools talk among themselves a while before catching up with them, they wanted to be alone for a bit.

When they were alone, Alyssa kicked a tree in frustration, "why, we just wanted to be alone for a bit, why is it every time we are alone or out on a date we must get interrupted by either the pervert or people after the nine-tails," she was comically crying while hitting the tree at this point.

Zen-Aku let her go on for a little while longer before coming up behind her and hugging her, "I feel frustrated too, but taking it out on a tree is not what you need, I'm sure we'll have plenty of chances to be alone on this trip, think of it like a vacation," he told her as she relaxed in his care.

"Fine, but the next person that interrupts us is going to get the full furry of a tiger brought down upon them, even if I have to combine it with the Predazord to fight the nine-tails," she was determined to be alone with him for a little while, with no interruptions at all.

"Trust me, not even the kage can escape our wrath if they interrupt us again, and if Itachi does so again then he can forget about our help in making Sasuke stronger," he promised her, there was no way that he would break a promise as big as this, they really wanted to be together, no matter what.

It was at this time that Jiraiya came around the corner and greeted the two in a tender embrace, "well kids, you ready to go," he asked with a smile, Alyssa turned to glare at him before making to pounce at him had Zen-Aku not been faster and held her in his arms to lock her in.

After calming Alyssa down, they made to the track down the road to some town inside of a ravine, "do you know if Tsunade is even in this town, or are we looking for information on her," Zen-Aku asked as Alyssa was still pouting at the interruption, again.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know how long this will take, but as long as we split up, we'll find her in no time, we'll meet at a nice little hotel, here's the address," Jiraiya told him before handing him a paper with the address on it, he also had one for Alyssa, but she was still pouting.

He left them to find some stuff out on their own, they walked down to the town and began looking around, there was a festival going on, but they didn't pay any attention, they each had pictures of Tsunade, so they split up, Zen-Aku took a third, Alyssa took another third, Jiraiya took a whore house. With some actual searching going on, they were able to get some information, a woman matching her description was seen in a town only a little way away, Jiraiya didn't want to leave the whore houses, claiming that they had valuable intel that he needed for his books and such. A quick threat from both the tiger zord and the wolf zord showing up put an end to that, they had a nice and quiet walk to the town where they checked gambling houses, which cost Jiraiya a thousand to get the information, and then a landmark that had been destroyed by Orochimaru. After that they decided to call it quits for the day and find something to eat, which is why they headed to a random bar that might also house some information on Tsunade, what they didn't expect was to find her sitting at a booth, "Tsunade," Jiraiya shouted and pointed to said woman.

"Jiraiya, what are you doing here," Tsunade demanded as she stood up from her sitting position, when Zen-Aku and Alyssa approached, along with Jiraiya, they noticed the abundance of sake bottles at her booth, with a black-haired woman looking apprehensive about all the drinking.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, oh, I should have known you'd be in here," Jiraiya commented as they took some seats across from the other two, there was a pregnant silence in the air, then both sanin took drinks of their sake one after the other, Jiraiya first, then Tsunade.

"It's like a reunion, all your faces coming back at the same time," Tsunade commented before Jiraiya poured her another drink, along with himself he took a swig of it before he noticed that Zen-Aku and Alyssa grabbed some as well, he shook it off, their souls were old enough.

"You mean Orochimaru," Jiraiya stated and they watched as the black-haired woman gasped in surprise that they found out, "so what happened," he asked her, almost knowing that she wasn't going to tell the truth, but still had to ask anyways to be sure.

"Oh, nothing really, we said hello, that's about it," Tsunade lied, she then took out some cards out of her clothes and shuffled them, "well then, why have you been looking for me," she asked, as she placed the cards down on the table for him to shuffle next, this must be their thing to do.

"I'll cut right to the chase," Jiraiya took the cards and shuffled them before putting them back to the center of the table, "Tsunade, in it's wisdom, the village has come to the decision to name you as the Fifth Hokage," he picked up some cards and held them up, "you've heard about the Third Hokage?"

Tsunade copied his actions by grabbing her own set of cards, "it was Orochimaru's doing, right, I heard about it, in fact, he told me himself," so it was more than a quick hello, figured as much, then she noticed the wolf guy looking at her, "who's the brats you've got with you," she asked rudely.

"My name is Zen-Aku Uzumaki, you may know me as Naruto Uzumaki, son of the fourth hokage Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, hello godmother, nice to finally meet you," Zen-Aku introduced himself with as polite a tone as he could, ignoring her glaring at him.

"I would have thought you inherited your father's brains, you should know better then to say that out in the open, what if someone is listening in, can't believe my godson is some idiot that thinks he's all cool just because of who his father was," Tsunade mumbled the last part to herself.

"I'm beginning to think all you sanin are just talk with no real substance, you really think I'd reveal that information without putting up privacy seals, I put them up every time you took a drink," he informed with a small glare at the insult about what she thinks of him.

The information surprised her, now that she took note, there were privacy seals up in place, impressive, and masterfully done, then the other brat spoke up, "my name is Alyssa Hyuga," the girl didn't sound all that thrilled to be here, in fact, she looked to be pouting about something.

"What's got you so bent out of shape, dragged here kicking and screaming, or to ask advice on healing I bet, or disappointed in the fact that your hero isn't all she's cracked up to be, that's life," Tsunade stated as she placed a card down and grabbed another and placed it in her hands.

"That's not it Tsunade, apparently every time the two of them, that being Zen-Aku and Alyssa, try to have a moment of peace and alone time with one another, either I or some other person tries to ruin the moment, last time was because of a group called the Akatsuki," Jiraiya informed blankly.

Tsunade stared blankly at them for a moment, then you could hear her struggling to keep something from escaping her throat, that was when she roared with laughter completely unbecoming of the lady she was supposed to be, complete with snorts and everything. When she was done with the laughter, she found the girl glaring at her for laughing at her troubles, "sorry brat, but I'm used to people coming in and asking about what I've mentioned, but to hear your reason is a bit refreshing, but you're young, you still got time to be alone with him."

Alyssa threw her hands up and sighed in frustration, "I know I've got time and I'm young, the problem is in the future, is this what it's going to be like, we were supposed to be on a date when the pervert dragged us on this mission, and it seems like every time we try and be alone, something happens."

Alyssa was now hanging her head on the table while Zen-Aku rubbed her back soothingly, Jiraiya brought the conversation back on track, "I'll say it again, the leaf village has made its decision, they have chosen you to be the Fifth Hokage, we need your answer, do you accept it Tsunade?"

Tsunade seemed to be in deep thought about it, and it took a while before she made a move, she through her cards on the table face down, "impossible," she raised her head up to look at him in the eyes as she said, "I decline," but they could tell she's in deep thought about something.

Despite her answer, Jiraiya smiled, "you know, it's kind of funny, that rings a bell, I remember you saying those very words the first, and only time, I ever asked you out," he explained the reason behind his smile, Zen-Aku and Alyssa just had looks like, 'are you serious right now,' on their faces. "You know you can't refuse, there can be no one else, there was no one who contributed more to the leaf's victory in the great war, you combine unrivaled skills as a warrior with the ability to heal others, and that isn't the only reason you're best suited for the task of being Hokage. You are the granddaughter of the very first Hokage, so in heritage and abilities, you are the clear and only choice to be the Fifth Hokage, and once you accept your destiny, which you will, then you'll have to come back to the village and there heal some friends that need healing. You see, it's all been carefully thought out by the highest councils of the village, and despite any bad blood between you, Zen-Aku, the elders do know what they're doing," Jiraiya was now pushing the line with mentioning Zen-Aku in this, but to be fair, the org knew that as well, didn't like it though.

"I think you're missing one key fact in all of this Jiraiya, in the end, it is still her choice on the matter, you can have all the ability and heritage that one can possess, but if you chose not to use it, you might as well not have any of it, did the council think of that," Zen-Aku asked rhetorically.

"You've remained the same as ever Jiraiya, you still know how to pick apprentices, clever and knows how to speak, too bad he's a bit funny looking," Tsunade said as she picked five cards from the pile, each held as if it was one card at first, but the way she said what she said sounded a bit mocking.

"Well, to be fair, it'd be hard for anyone to measure up to his father, Minato shoed all the signs of becoming the greatest ninja in generations, brimming with talent and natural ability, brilliant, popular, and to top it off, nearly as handsome as his teacher," Jiraiya seemed to be agreeing with her.

"You do know that I'm in the room with you as well, right," Zen-Aku asked rhetorically, seriously, he was meant to be scary looking, he was the duke org general, Zen-Aku, meant to inspire fear for years to come, he wasn't meant to be handsome in any sense of the word.

"Don't worry Zen-Aku, I still think you're good looking, and even scary at times," Alyssa said as he kissed his cheek to emphasize her point, Zen-Aku smiled at her from behind his mask before wrapping his left arm around her shoulder, at least someone was on his side.

"Oh, sure, but all that didn't save him from dying young, throwing his life away all for the sake of the village," Tsunade stated as she revealed another card money's one thing, a life's another, to risk your life against all the odds, that's a sucker's bet," that was a little uncalled for. "My grandfather and his successor, they were also willing to die to defend the village, well, they're both dead all right, and the village is no safer than it ever was," she revealed yet another card in her hand," she was being very disrespectful to the dead now, brave warriors that died.

"Sounds to me, you've changed Tsunade, I don't know what's happened to make you like this, but to say such things out loud," Jiraiya commented, forget saying it out loud, the lack of disrespect she was showing was getting on Zen-Aku's nerves, his warrior spirit coming to life.

"Don't forget, I'm not as young as I look, the years have taught me a great deal," Tsunade reminded as she revealed another card, "Sarutobi-Sensei too, he should have known better, what did he expect trying to be a hero at his age," she revealed yet another card, there disappointment in her eyes. "Ha, playing at Hokage, count me out, it's a fool's game," she sighed as she set back against the wall of the booth they were in, a growl escaped someone's throat and they all turned to Zen-Aku as his eyes seemed to glow amber as his head was bowed slightly to shadow most of his face.

"It's quite disrespectful to mock the dead, especially the warriors that have fought and died in the past so that the future may live, you should know better then to mock that, I've herd that the sanin were to be feared and respected, but you've shown me no reason to do so," he growled out.

"I'm simply stating the facts, but you sounded almost challenging there, you've got guts, if nothing else, why don't we go outside, mut," Tsunade suggested, Zen-Aku happily agreed with a nod of his head, and before long they were all outside in the street with godson and godmother facing the other. "One of the legendary Sannin taking on a snotty-nosed genin, I ought to be ashamed of myself," that is when she lifted a single index finger up, "you see this, one finger, it's all I'm gonna need to take you down, well, what are you waiting for, kid," she was taunting him now.

"I wouldn't underestimate a duke org so openly, you might end up regretting it," Zen-Aku would usually summon his crescent blade, but he didn't want to hurt her, he got into a ready stance with ready but loose muscles, ready to attack when she does, but she seemed to be studying him.

"I'll make a bet with you, you win and you get this necklace that I where, you lose and I never see any of your faces for as long as I live," Tsunade offered, to her it was a fair deal, the necklace was something precious to her, and worth more then she could ever gain through bets.

"No, if you wish to make a deal, then if I win, you come back to the village with us and become Hokage with no questions asked, and no complaints, but if you win, then we'll leave and Jiraiya will become the hokage," Zen-Aku offered back, that was actually worst case scenario.

"Think about that, Jiraiya, the writer of perverted smut books, the old aged pervert that talks of nothing but women and many other perverted things leading a village with a great number of pretty women," Alyssa pointed out, what would happen if that happened, the calamity it would bring.

"Hey, I'm not that bad, I just appreciate a fine woman and know what it takes to make one, not my fault you people don't know fine things, or fine literature, my books are great," Jiraiya yelled over to them, they looked at him with raised eyebrows, he huffed and turned his back to them.

Tsunade thought about the offer, they leave and put Jiraiya as Hokage and nothing will ever be the same, she actually felt sorry for those women now, but if she somehow lost, she'd become the Hokage herself, no more gambling, no more drinking, and protecting what she hates the most. The pay offs were a loss to her either way, "how about this for if you win, I'll come back and be Hokage, you lose and I don't have to come back, but anyone other than Jiraiya can become Hokage," that sounded good, everyone wins that way, and then anyone other than a pervert will be Hokage.

"Fine, but you still have to come back with us to heal some friends of ours, you don't have to be Hokage for that," Zen-Aku suggested, that was reasonable, they did come all this way to find her, so it was only fair that she come back to help their friends, any sensible person would see that.

"Fine, let's get this started," Tsunade brought her finger up again, then she waited for him to rush in like she thought he would, and he would, but not being full frontal about it, this was a sanin after all, Zen-Aku dashed forward and just as he was about to reach her, he ducked her finger jab. Then she pointed her finger down in an instant and began to jab it down, only to pass through air as the org spun while in mid air and made to backhand her, but she blocked it with her left hand before in an instant she felt pain in her gut before she noticed his foot implanted in it.

She was sent skidding back while he landed gracefully with little effort, "you'll have to do better then that to beat a several millennia old org with jinchuriki level power," Zen-Aku stated before cracking his neck, "but I'll go easy on you, since you did say that you'd only use one finger." That brought Tsunade back to what she said, in the mitts of showing off, she forgot that this wasn't the brat that she should underestimate, he was a jinchuriki, and held power that she has never encountered before, who knows what he can do, but at the same time, he's underestimating her. She charged in and made for another poke, he reached up and to his face and held it there for only a moment before catching her hand with his left while at the same time sending a wave of org energy lightning with his right hand at point blank, she went flying back and landed with a thud. "Do you think that you should release the restriction you put on yourself, or do you want to keep going, or I could just let you know one thing, my end goal in life is to become the Hokage, to be Hokage, that is my dream," he announced, he knew he had her right there, she was easy to predict. Thanks to the public records, he was able to determine quite a bit about his godmother, such as what would trigger what, that would trigger her memory of her little brother and mother, get her to think twice about any deal Orochimaru offered, and that was easy to tell with the black-haired woman's faces at the mentions of his name. The mention of being Hokage did distract her though, and in an instant, he used his shadow form to land right in front of her and deliver a crushing fist to her face that made her impact the ground and leave a small crater, yet she still tried to get up, even after leaving a crater in the ground.

"I will not go back to that village and lead it, I refuse to give up, that place is one of the reasons I lost both of them, I can't go back," Tsunade sprung to her feet to give him a flick to the chin, but she missed when he bent backwards and kicked her in the face at the same time, knocking her down.

"Spitting in their faces and letting the village crumple in ruin, that is what you're doing should you choose to ignore the summons to be Hokage, you don't have to because you want to, but what about for those that you've lost, carry on their dream for them, did you ever think about that." Zen-Aku asked, the look she gave him told him no, "then why not carry on their dream through yourself," he bent down to her level, "is it so bad to come back and become Hokage, to put your life on the line for the place your loved ones once called home, that your grandfather built. You don't really even have to fight all that often, chances are that you might just be sitting in the office and not fighting, the fighting can be done by the rest of us anyways, are you coming back to the village or not," he asked in a soft voice, not many gets to hear it, only Alyssa and now her.

Tsunade thought about it, she thought long and hard, and eventually she sighed, "fine, I'll come back and become Hokage, not because of anything other than the memory of those two, if they wanted to become Hokage, the least I can do is carry on their dreams."

"Good, before we go however," Zen-Aku began before he surprised everyone there, summoning his org strength, channeling the fox's chakra, and mixing some of his own, he punched her with enough force to knock her out, everyone else was slack jawed, "what, she might get second thoughts."

"Whatever, but thanks to you, we've got who we came here for, and slickly done as well, I shouldn't be surprised, you are an Uzumaki, and the men of the Uzumaki's were known for their silver tongues, or talk jutsus as some called it," Jiraiya commented as he picked Tsunade up over his shoulder.

"Great, now she'll be cranky when she wakes up, but when she does and we're back in the village, she should know that we want a week off to be alone, I don't really care if Orochimaru himself attacks the village, got it," Alyssa told the three adults with a byakugan activated glare for emphasis.

"I think they got the picture Alyssa, especially since we've already been attacked by the Akatsuki, had to chase after Jiraiya on more then one occasion, and had every other small moment to ourselves interrupted by something going on, so they'll be happy to give us the time off, Right?" Zen-Aku also added a glare for good measure, of course, the fact that he was wearing a wolf mask that shadowed his eyes a bit and brought a look to his face that was quite ominous, they quickly nodded to the feeling they were getting, "good, let's go deer, our week off awaits us." The two hooked arms with one another with Alyssa on the right and Zen-Aku on the left as they walked ahead of the group, they were ten yards away before they realized the other three weren't walking with them, they stopped so he could call out, "you guys coming," over his shoulder before continuing.


	6. Sasuke Retrieval Mission

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 6

Sasuke Retrieval Mission

Zen-Aku, Alyssa, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Shizune could be seen walking at a semi slow pace back to the hidden leaf village, it would take them maybe an hour to get back to the village, so this was a good chance to talk with Tsunade about something, "Tsunade, would it be trouble to ask something of you."

"Depends, if you're wanting me to promote you to chunin after the exams were put on hold, I won't, despite the power you showed, and even if it was to avenge Alyssa, I can't promote that sort of behavior for grounds of being a chunin," Tsunade said with authority befitting hokage.

"That wasn't what I was going to suggest, I was going to suggest that you consider Shikamaru Nara and Sasuke Uchiha for promotion, Shikamaru displayed a tactical mind befitting someone of chunin rank, and Sasuke was able show a great mind of his own when going against Gaara. Gaara is a jinchuriki, and Sasuke showed great skill and ingenuity in fighting him, even injuring him at one point, that is no easy feat with any jinchuriki, but the holder of the one known for its defense shows a great battle prowess and a good mind. Shikamaru is equally deserving of the rank, if not more so, he was able to not only use the terrain to his advantage, he was able to do so using the minimal tools at his disposal to drive his opponent back and in a position of his choosing," Zen-Aku informed and explained.

Tsunade sighed as they walked, "you keep on surprising me, I thought you'd be this pompous and arrogant guy from the moment I saw you, but you keep on proving that you're anything but that, I'll look into the request," they continued walking in silence until they finally got to the village.

Getting the new hokage set up wasn't a big issue, what was an issue was getting her to remember that she had people that needed to be healed up as well, and the scolding that Kakashi got because of the defeat he had at the hands of 'someone like Itachi Uchiha' was worth it. The healing of Sasuke was a lot more interesting with Zen-Aku saying, "you thought that you could take on someone like Itachi Uchiha with just a single A-rank ninjutsu, you need at least a full arsenal before you can even begin to take him on."

"Not to mention you are just a thirteen-year-old genin at this moment, and he was an anbu captain, you need more than a few years of training to catch up to someone like him," Alyssa put in, and now that he was awake, he should hear them and what they're saying.

"Stop it you two, that's not fair, I'm sure that Sasuke was just caught off guard, there'd be no way for him to have been taken down by someone like Itachi otherwise, right," Sakura defended her love, too bad the deadpan looks he received, or believed she received, told something else.

"He got his ass handed to him because he thought that he could take on his brother with only an A-class jutsu, they're right little girl, it does nothing but puts himself in danger while going off with barely a concept of the enemy's strength, it was foolish," Tsunade commented before walking out. Zen-Aku and Alyssa turned to leave as well, they didn't need to go see about Lee, and Lee isn't in the mood to see Zen-Aku either, ever since he killed Neji and took Lee's chance to prove himself better, all he's done is call the duke org an unyouthful person and yell at him every chance given. Instead, they decided to head back to their apartment, too bad on the way they ran into the Konohamaru corps and they told him what Konohamaru has done, that being barricading himself inside the hokage's office and refusing to come out, he even laid traps in case anyone tried to get him out.

"You go help Konohamaru, I'm going to get some sweet buns, then maybe go to the store," Alyssa told him before giving a quick peck on the cheek and walking in the other direction, on the way she saw Kurenai, Anko, and Tsume Inuzuka in a dango shop and eating some of the sweets. This was her chance, she had something she needed to speak with them about, well, she needed to speak with her sensei about the art of kunoichi seduction and was going to ask Anko to help since she's quite womanly as well and would know some advanced seduction techniques. With Tsume here as well though, she could get even more insight on how to seduce Zen-Aku so when the time came, she wouldn't just be lying there and not pleasuring him as well, "Kurenai-sensei, Anko-Sensei, Tsume Inuzuka, how are you doing," she called with a bright smile.

"Aw, Hinata, it's been a while, but I'm glad that you're doing alright, what have you been up to," Kurenai asked with a pleasant smile, it wasn't completely pleasant, she was in a bit of a bad mood because of the girl's father, her father has been coming to her with complaints on his daughter.

"Nothing to troubling, I fought a giant snake at the third round of the chunin exams when we were all invaded, and I just got back from a mission with Zen-Aku and Jiraiya in which we found and brought back lady Tsunade to become the next Hokage," Alyssa said casually with a shrug.

The other three just stared at her blankly for a moment, they were a little stunned that she just mentioned two big events so casually, if only they knew what else she'd done, but the first one to recover was Tsume, "how did you summon such a huge metal tiger, I've never seen such a thing."

"A secret technique that I picked up on one of my missions, I didn't want to tell anyone about it until I fully had it mastered, I did so a few days before the final exams," Alyssa stated while rubbing the back of her head nervously, the others were looking as if to say, 'is that really the lie.'

"That is probably the most used excuse out there for any secret technique out there kid, if you're going to lie like that, at least make it less cliché," Tsume stated with a little smirk towards the girl before taking a drink of her sake, it wasn't too bad for a low-grade stand for dango.

"Despite the obvious lie, we'll let you keep your secrets, in exchange, why don't you tell us why you're really here," Anko suggested with a smirk, she had an idea what the girl, after the little story she heard after the second round, she guessed something might come up.

Alyssa sighed before she set next to Tsume with Anko and Kurenai sitting across from them, "I came here to see if I could get some extra kunoichi training, namely in the art of seduction, and with Tsume here, some specific seduction for the more… hairy of targets." That was a good way for Alyssa to put it, make it sound more like training than for her own personal relationship and they might actually help her instead of not wasting time on a girl that wasn't fully developed yet, despite her mental age.

The others gave her a blank look before Kurenai spoke up, "really Hinata, that's the way you want to ask for help in regards to seducing Naruto, ninja training for seduction techniques, I thought you'd at least be straight with us and just ask instead of beating around the bush."

Figured she couldn't lie to jonins, with another sigh she got to the point, "fine, I really need help seducing him, I know he loves me and I don't actually need to seduce him, but I can't help but want to do something special for him since we keep getting interrupted every time we're alone." She received confused looks on that, it wasn't normal for ninja to not be alone together, some times their missions actually demanded it, she noticed the looks so she explained, she explained everything she could, the interruptions at key moments were embarrassing, but also irritating.

"Seriously girl, you got interrupted when he was fingering you, I would have lost my patience long ago and just jumped him if I had to put up with half of that many interruptions, and it sounds like lord Jiraiya is actively trying to disrupt things with the way you're telling it," Anko commented.

"This might sound a little bit overbearing, but since I'm your sensei, I need to ask if you think this might be the universe's way of saying that you need to slow your relationship with Naruto, you can't possibly be backed up to the point of asking advice from us," Kurenai suggested.

Alyssa looks at her blankly for a moment before speaking, "Kurenai-sensei, I know Zen-Aku told you about where me and him are from, in that world I was nineteen when I was reincarnated into this world, and I never felt the touch of a man, not even a kiss. Add that to the thirteen years I've spent in this world and I have the soul of a thirty-two-year-old woman with the mind equal to a middle-aged Nara thanks to my elephant soul boosting my intelligence, so when I say that I'm backed up, believe me when I say, I'm backed up."

Anko whistled at that, "damn, I wouldn't ever go that long without something, and I bet the little finger bang that he gave you didn't help since you didn't even get to finish, am I right," she asked and Alyssa had the decency to blush before slamming her head on the table.

"Okay, I get why you might need help from those two," Tsume said, gesturing to Anko and Kurenai, "but why would you need my help, it's not like your boyfriend is part Inuzuka, or part dog or anything, so why would you ask me for help, and I mean that, why?"

Alyssa turned her head to look at Tsume while her head was still on the table while the other two gave her a blank look, like the turned head of Alyssa was giving her as well, Kurenai decided to speak though, "because he's basically a humanoid wolf with a horn on his forehead."

"Then I might have some advice about that, but that depends on some factors that I need to ask about, like who is more dominate, who is submissive, you can tell by many factors, the easiest is who instigates intimate contact between you two, doesn't have to be sexual," Tsume explained factually.

"Well, neither of us is dominate over the other, we both instigate intimate contact, he'll hug and kiss me while I return it, or I'll hug and kiss him while he returns it, we actually have a pretty evenly split relationship," Alyssa informed casually, that wasn't to rare of a thing, right?

"Well, that's rare, usually you have one dominate in a relationship with a canine or anything reminiscent of an Inuzuka in any way, with him part wolf, I expected him to be similar, but since you are even in your relationship, I've got no idea on what to do," Tsume admitted with a shrug.

"That means that you can't get a special little trick to please his canine side, meaning all you have left is the tricks that we'll be teaching you," Anko said with a wonderful grin, just filled with sadistic pleasure, "this way both of you can get your rocks off, trust me."

"Anko, don't scare her, and I never gave you permission for that, and as her sensei, I have to give the go ahead for something like that," Kurenai chastised the snake mistress, then she turned to the girl, "and you, have you thought of everything, what about birth control, is it even needed."

Alyssa looked a little downtrodden at that, "I have, we both have, he had his sperm checked out when Zen-Aku and Naruto fused together to make him," she shed a single tear at the part that was about to come out of her mouth, "his org sperm is incompatible with a human's egg."

The three of them took a sharp breath at that, Kurenai spoke up, hoping to sway the girl from the org and move to a more normal boy, like Kiba or Shino or somebody else, "what about you Hinata, are you willing to give up on the chance of having a family, you told me once that was what you wanted most."

"A family doesn't have to have children included, and I'm not in love with Zen-Aku for the possibility of children, I love him for who he is and that is something I will always love," Alyssa stated with passion in her eyes, she was sad about no children, but it wasn't a requirement for love.

"Now that was some statement, I'll help regardless of what Kurenai says, in fact, I'll teach you the secret kunoichi seduction technique developed and perfected by our generation's seduction expert," Anko said with a smirk, and who knows, it could be fun teaching how to please herself and the man.

"I remember her, taught only a select few her secrets and skill, and you're one of them, correct," Tsume asked the snake mistress and said woman nodded with a smirk, "now this I gotta be a part of, and after I get to know you and him, maybe I could give some advice for his canine side."

"Fine, but if you want to do this Hinata, it's going to be in a safe and closed environment, and I'll help anywhere I can, but don't expect much since I'm not as skilled in this area as these two," Kurenai said while the others laughed, this could be fun, but also hot and sweaty.

* * *

Days later

Zen-Aku was making his way through the hospital on his way to see Sasuke, he was alone because Alyssa was off training with Kurenai and some other kunoichi, she said she wanted the results and what it's about to be a surprise, so he respected her wishes and decided to visit Sasuke. As he was walking he saw Sakura about to enter the room with a bag of apples, and when she spotted him, she waved, and he just nodded before following her inside, "look, I brought you some apples, you like them, right," she said as she fully entered the room and sat down beside his bed. She took an apple out to show him, "here, don't they look delicious," before putting it back in the bag and setting the bag down and began looking around and found a knife she must have had earlier before peeling the fruit for him to eat easier.

Sasuke was just sitting there with a blank face as if not seeing them, but the way his ears twitched slightly, you could tell he was listening to what was going on, so Zen-Aku decided to speak up, "you've been in here longer than you should have been, what's going on with you?"

Sasuke was silent for a moment while Sakura peeled an apple to give to him, but then Sasuke lifted his head up and sent a very nasty glare the org's way, "you, Naruto, I want you to fight me, fight me right now," he ordered with his head slightly bowing a little bit, not enough for many to notice.

"Why would I do that Sasuke, you have just recovered enough to where you can move from I've heard, lying in bed for days on end because you lost to your brother, who you thought you could take on by yourself, with a single A-rank ninjutsu, why fight you after that," Zen-Aku asked.

"Shut up and fight," Sasuke demanded again as he activated his sharingan to show how serious this was to him, "do you really think you've saved me, I don't care what you think," Sasuke now sprung up from the bed and stood in front of Zen-Aku with a determined gaze.

"Very well, if you wish to fight one another so badly, I won't say anymore on the subject, we'll do this on the roof," Zen-Aku said as he walked away and heard the footsteps of Sasuke and Sakura behind him, it didn't take long to get to the roof where a multitude of white sheets awaited them. When they finally got to the roof, they stood on opposite sides of the roof, tense yet loose muscles ready for the fight to begin, Sasuke with his sharingan still activated, Zen-Aku with his arms crossed and a steady breathing coming from his lunges.

"Stop acting so high and mighty, no matter how good you think you are, you still can't fight against someone like me and win, so stop acting like you're some great shinobi now that you got some halfway descent skills," Sasuke advised as he readied his stance and made ready to charge.

"I suggest you put your headband on first, we might be doing this, but we should be doing this as we should, on equal ground as fellow leaf shinobi," the duke org advised the 'last' loyal Uchiha, though he knew it would be useless, he still had to advise it, his honor demanded it.

"There you go acting all high and mighty again, you can't possibly think we're equals," Sasuke raged as if unbelieving that the one who placed last every year thought that he was at all on equal ground with himself, "you're a complete embarrassment."

"You are just mad that everything that I've done over shadows what you have done, or the mistakes you've made, like thinking you can take on your brother like you are now," Zen-Aku pointed out with crossed arms, and that seemed to do the trick in enraging his target.

Sasuke quit talking and charged at the duke org with a right fist aimed for his face, it was caught with one hand at the last second before used to judo flip the Uchiha over the duke org to land on his back, but Sasuke caught himself and flipped to kick Zen-Aku in the face instead. The duke org just swatted the feet away while side stepping bringing his own leg up to kick the boy in the gut while he was in the air before repeating said action with the other leg as well and making the boy stay in the air even longer before bringing his left elbow up and slamming it into his chin. Sasuke slammed into the ground after that and rolled out of the way of Zen-Aku's right heel about to be dropped onto his head that almost cracked the roof they were on, Sasuke ended up rolling into the sheets that were hung up to dry that day to hide himself for a moment. He probably expected the duke org to chase after him and into the sheets but was too dumb to realize that he wasn't the same kid he had pretended to be, that was when Sasuke threw a sheet at him in an effort to hide his movements and attack his blind spot. Zen-Aku instead extended his claws out and tore through the sheet and was able to see the fist in time to avoid it and duck in an instant before bringing his right knee up and slamming it into the Uchiha's gut, making him cough up some spit. Next was a large backhand to his face that slammed him into the ground and did crack the pavement of the roof, he was now struggling to pull himself back up while the duke org just remained still above him with arms crossed, it infuriated Sasuke to no end, seeing him like this.

"You are not ready to fight me Sasuke, I don't need to use a jutsu or tricks to defeat you, the only thing you are doing is throwing a tantrum over the fact that I am currently stronger than you, and that you are weaker than Itachi, did you think he wouldn't be training as well, you are a naïve child. If you can't see what lies behind what you see, than you don't deserve to have those eyes of yours, bloodline or not, as far as I'm concerned, you are but a waste of an Uchiha with a thief's eye, and that is all you will ever be until you can learn respect and how to see," Zen-Aku stated bluntly.

Now Sasuke was pissed, it was bad enough that he was losing to a clanless loser like Naruto, but now he's being told that he was nothing but a wasted Uchiha throwing a tantrum over being weak, that pushed Sasuke passed a breaking point and made him enact the Chidori in his left hand. In a flash, or so he thought, he spun around and aimed for the heart of Naruto, but it didn't reach, before it cold get close enough to the duke org to hurt him, a hand clasped a hold of his wrist and threw him to embed him deep into a water tank on top of the hospital that they were on. "What do you think you're doing Sasuke, that was a bit much for a sparing match, and not the size of a chidori that you aim for a comrade, if I hadn't shown up when I did, that chidori could have killed him," Kakashi's voice called over to him from where he was beside of Zen-Aku. Sasuke dislodged his arm from the water tank and the water flooded out from the gaping hole he made, "you really need to get over this sense of superiority you have, you really do need to grow up," Kakashi said once more to drive the point home that Sasuke really did need to grow up. Sasuke didn't want to hear any more of anybody else tell him that he needs to grow up or that he was a child and decided to backflip the fence and leave the conversation, the others watched him go and didn't bother trying to stop him, Kakashi sighed, "well, so much for teamwork."

"Thanks for the save, I expected him to break down and cry and show some emotion at what I said, my experience led me to believe that is what he should have done, but I guess you can't completely tell what someone is able or willing to do in an agitated state," Zen-Aku commented.

Sakura broke down and began crying at what Sasuke did, she never expected him to do something like that, it probably didn't help that she was feeling useless standing on the sidelines, Kakashi turned to her to say something, "don't worry Sakura, we'll get him back to his old self soon."

"Don't delude yourself, and you shouldn't tell her some lie like that, she needs to grow up as well, that was his old self, he's always been an asshole, the only difference is that now you see how he really is," Zen-Aku commented as he started to walk away, "I'm gong home, goodbye." He disappeared in a shadowy haze that speed across the rooftops until he got to his apartment where Alyssa was waiting for him while reading one of his many books on seals that he got from his parent's treasury room, "I'm home deer," he announced as he walked through the door.

"Welcome home Zen," Alyssa said before giving his mask a quick peck when he came over and leaned over her, "I was thinking about cooking some beef stew, or some rice and curry, which would you prefer," she mentioned to him as she turned a page and marked it before closing the book.

"I wouldn't mind having some beef stew, I love this Japanese style foods, but there comes a time when a few varieties are welcome in a diet," Zen-Aku stated as he started to undress with the bedroom door open by taking off his armor one piece at a time at an agonizingly slow pace.

For her it was an amazing show, she loved watching him at times, his perfect muscles that reminded her of a mighty beast was just mesmerizing, but she knew why he was doing this now though, they were both backed up heavily, and it didn't help with her training. Anko had forbidden her from participating in any kind of activity that 'pushed the envelope', or 'expressed intimate action' as Kurenai put it, Anko said that this was to help teach her self-control, and to help build up the anticipation for the night that is to come. Alyssa guessed that Anko never spent years with that same type of anticipation that Alyssa has, it didn't really help that Zen-Aku was changing in front of her either, "I know you want to do something besides kissing and snuggling, like the hotel, but I told you we can't," she stated.

"I know, your training prohibits us from being intimate like that again, for now at least, but we don't have to do that to be close to one another," Zen-Aku was fully dressed in his sleep attire without his mask, which was just shorts covering his lower body, "I love you, do you know that?"

"I know that, and don't worry," Alyssa stood up and walked into the bedroom and hugged him from behind, "we'll be together at one point in the near future," he placed his hand on hers and felt her ease at his touch, "but for now I'll make some dinner." She craned her neck and kissed his cheek, he wasn't that much taller than her, so it wasn't too difficult, and she knew he was watching her go so she added a little sway to her hips as he watched, he greatly appreciated the small show as payment for the show he gave her.

They ate the beef stew that was prepared, and Alyssa got ready for bed, her clothing for bed was a standard attire of pure white pajamas, they laid together as they always did, with her snuggled up close to his chest and his arms wrapped around her form, both with smiles on their faces. They were happy that night, just being in each other's company, but that happiness didn't last long, for in the morning, just as the sun was peeking out of the horizon, a knock was heard at their door, a loud knock, now neither of them were morning people, so they glared at the door. "I'll get it, you stay in bed deer," Zen-Aku commanded as he got up and headed for the door, making sure to grab his mask and put it on before opening it, it was Shikamaru Nara, in his new chunin vest, "you're interrupting my sleep Shikamaru, what do you want?"

"Sasuke has fled the village with the sound, apparently Sakura tried to confront him and he knocked her out, now I've been put in charge of gathering up some people to chase after him and bring him back," Shikamaru said with his standard board expression on his face and laxed stance.

"What," Zen-Aku barked out, these human shinobi keep on surprising him, why the hell would he do that, by now Sasuke should have realized that no matter how much he trained, he could never beet his brother, the only way to win would be with a team, these human shinobi are messed up. "Go find the other people you have chosen for the team, I'll wake up Alyssa and get dressed, we'll meet you at the gates when it's time to leave," now he slammed the door out of frustration and walked back to the bedroom and stripped the covers off of her form, "Sasuke defected."

The covers being stripped from her was bad enough, but then the news of Sasuke's defection to add to it, now she shot up and stared at him with a tired look, "I'm really tired of idiots doing things to disrupt us, and we're still in our weak off too, he had to pick now of all times, he's dead."

"I can't tell if you're serious or not with that tired look, but regardless, get up and get dressed, we have a mission to complete," Zen-Aku stated as he put on his armor and she put on her ranger uniform, only differences from back home were their height and their leaf headbands. They left their apartment locked and made sure to having everything packed as best they could to travel light and fast, this will be a mission of speed since the enemy already has a head start on them, a huge head start since they were traveling since last night.

They got to the front entrance and only had to wait a minute more for the rest of the team to arrive, a team that consisted of Choji, Shikamaru, Kiba, Akamaru, and a nicely healed up Lee who was glaring at Zen-Aku, who didn't even know that he could glare like that. "Alright, this is a rescue mission so we'll be in the position of pursuit, which means the enemy already has an important advantage over us, that said, I'm arranging us in a formation that can respond to any assault by the enemy, if none of you follow my orders exactly, we're all gonna die." Shikamaru stated with a small glare at the end to make sure everyone gets the message, "we'll go with a single file strike formation, as you all know, the most important position is the spear head, that's going to be Kiba and Akamaru. With all the walks you and Akamaru go on, you're the one most familiar with the land of fire's terrain, and with that sensitive nose of yours, you'll be able to track Sasuke's sent while also sniffing out any booby traps the enemy might have set, and two eyes can protect our line from an assault. Second in line will be yours truly, from that position I'll be able to guide everyone behind me using silent hand signals, and because I'm so close to Kiba, I'll be able to react to any situation," Shikamaru explained while the others were amazed at what he's able to set up and his reasoning. "The next in line will be Lee, his fast movements and powerful taijutsu makes him most suited to be in one of the two middle positions, able to move around and react from an attack on the side, front, or behind him at speeds that most can't follow. After that will be Naruto, that position is perfect for you, just like Lee, you'll be able to execute quick moves in front of you, to the side of you, or behind you, and your shadow clone jutsu will give us a leg up to outnumber them if you reinforce your clones with your…special chakra. Next will be Choji, you might not have any speed but your striking power is the greatest of the platoon members, Kiba, myself, Lee, and Naruto will launch a surprise attack, and then you will swoop in and finish them off, you're the second wave of out assault. Finally, on the end will be you Hinata, your position is most difficult, rear lookout, I want you to use your Byakugan to constantly scan ahead for weakness in our ranks," that was the full lineup on their chase to get back Sasuke, Shikamaru bent down and pulled out a scroll he was drawing in. "This diagram shows what part of the perimeter you are responsible for," he said once he was done and began pointing to the positions, "Kiba watches the front, I'm responsible for a wider forward view, Lee watches the left, Naruto watches everyone, Choji the right, and Hinata the back." Shikamaru began to roll up the scroll, "alright, now I think I should familiarize myself with our arms and weaponry, I need to check out all the ninja tools each of you plan on carrying into battle, that way I'll know what we have, any questions," nobody had anything to say to that. "Sine nobody has anything to add, I saved the most important thing for last, for as long as I've known him, Sasuke and I haven't always been close buddies, in fact, I don't really like him at all, all the same, he's a ninja belonging to the hidden leaf village, he's a comrade, and I'll lay my life down to help him. That's the way of our village," the wind seemed to blow to add effect to what Shikamaru was saying, "I know I usually seem like a pretty lazy guy, but not today, because now I'm responsible for your lives too," the show of responsibility was quite inspiring for them, quite inspiring in deed.

"While, never thought I'd see Shikamaru acting like a chunin, very impressive," Kiba commented, yes, impressive was another word for it, but now they showed off what they got in their gear, everyone had standard ninja equipment, "what the hell Naruto," almost everyone.

"This is my crescent blade and dagger flute, he wanted to see the weapons I'm taking with me, so I'm showing him the weapons I'm taking with me," Zen-Aku stated calmly after revealing his weapons, those two were his only weapons, it was all he ever needed in his millennia of life.

"Alright, let's move out," Shikamaru ordered and ignored Zen-Aku and Kiba, they were almost out of the gate when Sakura called out to wait, "lady hokage told me everything, sorry Sakura, I can't take you on this mission, I know you tried and failed to stop him, so I have to find and force him."

Sakura began breaking down in tears after that, "Naruto, this is a once in a lifetime request, just bring him home, please bring Sasuke back to me, I did everything I could, I tried, but I couldn't stop him, and at this point, you're the only person who can stop him, to save him."

She was sobbing greatly now with her head bowed so she couldn't see the dark look in Zen-Aku's eyes, or in Alyssa's for that matter, they knew the truth to many things, so they had a very different perspective from hers, a much darker and realistic viewpoint than her. "I won't promise you anything Sakura, this mission is for rescue, but if he proves to be a full traitor who has shared valued intel with the enemy, standard procedure is to execute the traitor, and I won't hesitate to do so, curse mark or no," Zen-Aku stated as he began to walk away. The others followed behind him and heard the sobbing and wailing of Sakura as they walked to where they could jump clearly to the top of the trees and start going at a ninja's pace, Zen-Aku had to slow down for the others and was sure to keep in the formation made by Shikamaru. Kiba in front, followed by Shikamaru, then Lee, next is Zen-Aku, and then Choji with Alyssa pulling up the back, this was their formation the entire time they traveled, their enemy seemed to be ahead of them, but not by much as they had expected them to be it was time to pick up the pace.


	7. Battles, Battles Everywhere

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 7

Battles, Battles Everywhere

The group had been traveling for a while now, probably a hundred miles from the village at least, the trees lined up perfectly for them to continually jump from one to the next in perfect sync, Kiba, then Shikamaru, Lee, Zen-Aku, Choji, and finally Alyssa coming in from behind. It wasn't until Akamaru whimpered that anyone said anything though, "Akamaru is smelling blood somewhere nearby," Kiba said before taking more sniffs, "here's what happened, the sent of two newcomers converged on Sasuke and four others, Sasuke's group moved on while the two stayed."

"Just as I thought, Sasuke's got an escort," Shikamaru said with some distain in his voice, "since Akamaru smelled blood, my guess is there was a battle between Sasuke's group and the two newcomers, if we go to the sight where they fought we might be able to gather useful information. Course we can't just rush in, it might be a trap, so when we get closer we'll go into full reconnaissance mode and take it slowly," he guessed part of what would happen if they went after to where the battle took place just to gather some useful information on the enemy.

"And while we're doing that, Sasuke would have crossed out of the boarder of the Land of Fire and out of our hands" Alyssa finished what the Nara was thinking, too much of a delay could result in them failing the mission, but not getting information on an opponent when able is a risky gamble.

Shikamaru seemed to be in deep thought about it for a moment before Zen-Aku decided to help a bit, "my shadow clones can learn and gain experience, and when dispelled that information is given to me, also my shadow form can get there quicker than anybody else," he informed.

"Good plan, alright, Zen-Aku will send a shadow clone to the area where the battle was fought while the rest of us continue pursuit, have it report back everything it learns about the enemy and the two they fought," Shikamaru ordered allowing Zen-Aku to make the clone and send it. "One thing for the rest of you, these guys have already been in one fight, so they'll be on their guard and unless they're complete idiots, they'll have to know there'll be more ninja on their trail, there's a good chance of encountering some booby traps or an ambush up ahead. So from this point on, we proceed with caution, I want everybody, not just Akamaru, to put all your senses on full alert, if you catch a trace of anything suspicious sound the alarm, we want to find these guys before they find us," Shikamaru told the squad as they continued moving.

Akamaru took a few sniffs and relayed the information to Kiba, "the enemy's sent is here, all around us, everyone stop," they all landed in a perfect line on a single branch looking for anything suspicious, Zen-Aku, Alyssa, and Shikamaru found it first though.

"Look up in the tree, see that," Shikamaru ordered and they did to find a sealing tag on it, "it's a perimeter barrier, a type of trap ninjutsu, there's a delay after the perimeter is breached giving the victim enough time to get to the center of the area for the full effect."

"It's a tricky jutsu, but the design is in a familiar art style, I can dispel it instead of us wasting time going around it," Zen-Aku said pointedly before getting the go ahead from Shikamaru to do it instead of going around, it didn't take long once he replaced the chakra link with his own.

With his clone however was a different story, while Kiba warned them about the trap, the clone of Zen-Aku just made it to the battle site and saw the state that the area was in, the place looked like a hurricane had gone through and destroyed or severely damaged everything. Trees were cut with deep and wide gashes in them, kunai and shuriken were imbedded in trees and four people were there, two were laying down, one was standing watching over those laying down while another one was leaning over one of those laying down healing him. The one healing one of the one's laying down was Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice, when she noticed him arrive is when he was finally regarded, "Zen-Aku, what are you doing here, this area is dangerous, Raido and Genma are badly injured," she informed.

"I can see that," Zen-Aku said in a growl as he stepped towards the two injured jonin, "the hokage sent a few of us on a mission to retrieve Sasuke, who defected and joined the group they most likely fought, are they well enough to speak on what happened or at least travel."

Genma coughed and drew attention to him, "you won't win… they're monsters… none of the… jutsu they used… was beyond the powers of mere shinobi… if you go after them… you'll only be killed," Genma strained to get out before going into a small coughing fit from his injuries.

"Genma, that's enough talking," Shizune ordered while she finished stabilizing Raido, "Zen-Aku, I'm guessing you're just a clone, go back and tell the rest of your squad that they really do need not engage the enemy, two jonin couldn't defeat them, so you genin don't have the strength."

"Never underestimate those that have a goal in mind, take your teammate back to the village, let us handle the rescue mission," with that said, Zen-Aku dispersed in a cloud of smoke and sent his experiences to the original, it was a shame that he didn't learn anything useful, but he tried.

The original Zen-Aku just got done deactivating the perimeter barrier when his clone's memories returned to him, "the barrier is deactivated, and my clone's memories have returned, the two that went against Sasuke's escort was Genma and Raido, two of our own jonin, they're badly injured."

"Damn, and here I was hoping they'd be two inexperienced chunin level guys that at least took one of them out, but it can't be helped, now we need to be extra careful as we proceed forward, they were able to take on two jonin level shinobi," Shikamaru advised as they jumped off.

They were jumping along the trees through the barrier until they were finally past it and going at a little slower pace to watch out for traps, it wasn't until Kiba gave the silent hand signal to halt that they did, he pointed down to the ground and let the others follow his hand at what he saw. They all saw a woman setting up a set of trip wire traps, she wore a sound ninja uniform and must be one of those that took Sasuke given the sash that distinctly reminded them of Orochimaru, her hair was red and she was grumbling to herself over something.

"Dumb ass Sakon, thinking that I'm fine after going to a level two curse mark just because I'm an Uzumaki, I should gut him, see if he still has that condescending tone when I'm through with him, the dumb fucker probably just once some quality time with his other gay gaggle of snake groupies." She muttered to herself as she put up the camouflage trap, the others were a few hundred meters away relaxing knowing that she could handle the traps herself, she cursed her Uzumaki heritage sometimes, but knew it was better to have an Uzumaki heritage than any other.

"I'll take her on, I'm the only one here that can, she's an Uzumaki meaning she has high chakra reserves, high than the rest of you have, the rest of you go and chase after the others," Zen-Aku ordered towards Shikamaru before receiving a nod from him and a motion for them to follow.

"Be careful, and don't do anything stupid," Alyssa ordered as she kissed his cheek as she passed him, she jumped ahead as fast as she could after that, they didn't worry about noise so they easily tipped off the female ninja she was about to act when a shadow appeared before her.

This shadow soon formed into a wolfman of some kind that brought out a dagger with three holes in it and charged, the ninja had barely any time and only barely managed to bring out her own flute and bringing it up to block the strike by the wolf duke org, "fancy meeting you here cousin."

The girl was obviously put off guard a little by the statement given the way her strength slipped for a moment before pushing back on his flute with her own, "I've never seen you before dipshit, what kind of fucker that goes around in a wolf mask thinks he's my cousin," she insulted.

Zen-Aku brought out his crescent blade in a flash and swiped as she backflipped away from the swing, "simple, since you're an Uzumaki, I guess that automatically makes us cousins doesn't it, unless there's a different relation between us, have you ever heard of Kushina Uzumaki?"

"Yeah I know of her ya little bitch, she's my older sister, my mom told me she had to go to your crappy village for some great honor, found out later that the 'honor' was to become a jinchuriki, then when our home village was destroyed, we left, what's it to ya," she hissed back.

"Well, than allow me to introduce myself," he said before stabbing his blade into the ground and bowing before his senior family member, "my name is Zen-Aku Uzumaki, son of your sister, Kushina Uzumaki, I hope we can get along with one another," he raised his head to look at her.

The woman was obviously stunned by this, given her wide eyes as she backed up a bit, she reeked of fear at seeing him, "no, I refuse to believe she had a kid, I refuse to believe that there's another Uzumaki other than me and my sister Karin, I refuse to believe it," her fearful look left.

"Believe what you want, but the truth is the truth auntie, but I'd rather not have to fight another Uzumaki if I can help it, so it's your choice, either fight and lose or step down and wait here until I take back the Uchiha from the snake," Zen-Aku offered bluntly as he grabbed his crescent blade.

"I wish I could dipshit, but this curse mark makes me do whatever lord Orochimaru wants, I can't just deny that, especially after all he's done for me, gave me and my sister a home, took us in and gave us power so that we'll never feel helpless again, I can't abandon the mission," she said.

"Very well auntie, but don't say I didn't warn you," he said as pull his blade form the ground and began charging for his aunt, she brought up her flute to try and play a melody, but he was already on her and in one swift fluid motion, she was cut in a long diagonal cut along her torso. She fell to the ground and was instantly defeated before she could do anything, before she could even activate her curse mark and fight back it was over, her eyes closed but her heartbeat was still there, he made sure that it was only blood loss that she fell from, no vital wounds. He made a shadow clone and had it tend to her wounds and do something about that curse mark while he went ahead and followed after the rest of the squad, it didn't take long to reach their point, and that is when he saw Lee and Kiba lose pathetically against a fat man.

The fat man noticed him arrive, "so you beat Tayuya, I knew that bitch was weaker than she let on, now I get to fight the weakling who killed her, what a letdown," the fat man said before slamming his hands on the ground, "earth style barrier, earth dome prison."

The earth began to rumble and crack before Choji jumped forward, "expansion jutsu," his torso grew in size until it was the size of a ball, "human bolder," he took in his arms and legs and spun around like a top making a good cover to disappear into the woods nearby to hide a moment.

"We're running out of time," Shikamaru stated as they sat in a circle, "there's no choice, we've got to split up, with most of our chakra taken away, even with the five of us, he's not going to be easy to take out, and with every second, Sasuke gets closer to the boarder and out of reach."

"So we should split into two groups, one to stop him and one to go after Sasuke's group," Alyssa surmised as she crouched next to Zen-Aku to remain hidden from this fat man, who just all of a sudden slammed his right hand on the ground to cause an earthquake and find their location.

"Naruto, you take Hinata, Kiba, and Choji and head after Sasuke, Lee and I will stay behind and take care of this guy," Shikamaru ordered as he kneeled down and got into position to use his shadow possession jutsu, though the effectiveness at this point was debatable.

"What are you going to do, play with my shadow again, don't waste my time kid, you already showed me your little parlor trick and once was enough," the fat man sneered at them as he stood there and barely acknowledged them in strength given his stance.

"That's funny, I seem to recall somebody here getting taken in by that parlor trick," Shikamaru replied as he sent out his shadow and a second one to come at the fat man from behind, the fat man smirked before slamming his hand onto the ground and disappeared into the ground.

Alyssa activated her Byakugan and tried to locate him, before Kiba sniffed him out just as he left the ground behind them, the man touched the ground again and brought forth a huge bolder, "earth style, sphere of graves," he called out as he held it over his head before throwing it. They dodged easily enough before Shikamaru was grabbed by the man and held upside down, "you're in charge of this little ragtag bunch am I right, when you've got an idiot for a leader the hole team suffers, ya know what I mean," he asked with a smirk on his face. "You don't wanna follow a guy like this," he started to spin the boy with one hand, "let me get rid of him for ya," he tossed the boy to his far left forcing Choji to catch him by using his human bolder to get to the tree he was headed for and stop spinning to cushion the blow. "Awe, I try to help you guys out and look what ya do, I don't know which is more pathetic, the fool or those that follow him, tell ya what, you don't wanna keep working under this glum face little shadow lover, I'll just kill ya now and put you out of your misery."

Choji rose up from leaning against the tree he used to catch Shikamaru and put on his most serious face, "I'll handle him, this guy is mine," the others looked to be about to protest, "he's mine I said," he stated again before taking out a brown bag from his weapons pouch. "Shikamaru, take these food pills for everyone," the shadow user gave him a look that asked a silent question, "u-huh, don't worry I've got my secret weapon with me," Choji walked to the front of the group, looking ready for a fight, and what a fight it was going to be.

"Oh this is priceless, you think I'm going to wait forever," the man charged at them, "enough of this, I'm going to take you all out right here," Choji took out a three set container containing three different pills and actually stopped the man after eating a green pill.

"Shikamaru take everyone and get out of here," Choji actually ordered of the team leader, "what did the five of us join together for, if we lose Sasuke we'll be just what this guy says we are, a stupid idiot of a leader and his band of rejects, get out of here, go already."

"Alright, let's move you guys," Shikamaru ordered as they all left Choji there to fend for himself in a battle of strength, this was obviously going to be a contest of strength that could easily be decided by other means as well if the two fighters had any agility as well. As they were traveling Shikamaru took out the brown bag he got from Choji and tossed it to Zen-Aku, "a parting gift from Choji, I'm sure you're battle with that Uzumaki woman was tiring as well, eat up," the battle with Tayuya wasn't really hard, but the duke org appreciated the gesture.

"Shikamaru, that pill that we saw Choji take back there, it seemed like some kind of last minute trump card, do you really think he can win," Alyssa asked, she had all kind of faith in her friends just as she did in her old life, but that didn't mean she wasn't worried regardless.

"Yeah, I mean he said he had some sort of secret weapon on him," Kiba asked as he fed Akamaru some food pill as well after Zen-Aku tossed him the bag, those pills are great for long time war rations, or in the case of chasing a team that took a member of your team hostage, sort of.

"Don't worry, Choji's got a plan up his sleeve, he brought along with him the Akimichi clan's secret triple threat, pills that grant a person explosive power, there are three of them, green, yellow, and red, the amount of energy that each of those pills contains is absolutely massive. Any pill that works that well though, always comes with side effects," Shikamaru informed as they continued onwards, you could tell he was worried for his friend, the side effect of the pills must be far greater than Kiba and Lee realize given their attitude.

Akamaru wined as they were traveling, "I know, I was just thinking the same thing myself, listen guys, you know how Akamaru can tell an enemies strength just by his scent right, he's pretty sure that Choji can't take on that gargantuan alone, just those pills to help him."

"He might be right to be, the strength of Choji's youth seems to be far weaker than that of his opponent, and if Neji were here he'd say that the other guy's strength is an unknown, and that the chances of beating him would be zero, which is often the case in battle," Lee commented.

"Lee's right, that's just how a battle is, we knew from the beginning that this mission wasn't going to be child's play, it's life or death, I've already anticipated the worst case scenario in which case each of us fights alone, and if we're not ready to lay down our lives, we won't reach Sasuke. Choji is good enough to hold his own, but he's not got a lot of confidence, he thinks out of all of us he's the weakest link," Shikamaru stated, it wasn't wrong, the boy did think of himself as the weakest link, but there are more ways to be the weak link than one.

"That's because the guy kind of is, I mean anyone can see that, that's pretty much the whole reason he stayed behind back there, because he wanted to be of some kind of use to us," Kiba commented and just made himself look more like a fool after all of this.

"Not so, the amount of raw power that he has is far greater than others know, the only thing is that he needs to work in his own self-confidence, he has to eat so much because his family's clan jutsu requires a lot of energy to work," Zen-Aku commented, he knew strength when he saw it.

"He's right, there's a reason why Shikamaru chose Choji for this mission, this mission requires not only speed but also strength, and Shikamaru knew this going in, which is why Choji stayed behind, it's likely he was the strongest, so Choji stayed to fight the strongest," Alyssa guessed.

"Hold," Shikamaru ordered and they all stopped and jumped to the ground where he took a kunai and made a mark, "it's for Choji, he did say he'd catch up, trust me he will beat that guy, and after he does he'll come find us," after the mark they left and moved to catch up to their charges.

Kiba did leave something though, probably words of inspiration or something, but it was time to go and so they went as fast at they could, it didn't take long before Shikamaru got a feeling though, it was a very bad feeling, and it put Zen-Aku's instincts into overdrive at that feeling. Soon came another bark and another warning before Alyssa activated her Byakugan, "that's strange, we've been traveling for quite some time and haven't run into any more traps, what's your assessment Shikamaru," Alyssa asked, she looked to Zen-Aku and he nodded in agreement.

"It looks to me that we've been underestimated, they're cocky and think we're all dead now, and their big guy is the only one following them, they don't need to set a trap for their own man, do they, so now we can take them by surprise," Shikamaru guessed before they made a quick plan.

Zen-Aku was going to use the transformation jutsu to turn into the fat man from before and trick the enemy into giving him the container since he was the biggest and strongest physically compared to the two left, the others hung back a good distance as they traveled as to not be seen. They each had roles as well and got into position just as the fat man arrived to the others, "he was, but he's just arrived," the man with six arms like a spider said as the fat man came from behind a tree branch, obviously it was this guy who was the sensor of the group, or a similar technique.

"Well it's about time, you were gone a while, what took you so long," a man with a head on his back and silver hair that seemed to be the leader of the group asked, probably has heightened perception thanks to the other senses he's getting fed to him from that other head as well.

"Sorry, it took longer than I thought to eat all those loser's chakra, too long," the fat man said in a perfect imitation of his voice, making sure that his voice didn't waver a bit as the hopped through the trees, almost on the waiting ambush ahead of them.

"Since you're back, take the coffin, that's your job isn't it," the six armed man ordered before tossing the coffin to him, he caught it with ease as he was watched by the two, the easy way he caught it must have confirmed for them he was who he said since they relaxed at the sight.

"Have to say, I was a little worried there for a moment, those brats seemed to have taken out Tayuya, for a moment we had doubts you'd be able to take them out," the silver haired one commented and made the fat one scoff at the implication of him being weak.

"Don't mistake me for her," he said just as they reached the final step for the trap to spring, in an instant he turned on his heel and jumped back from the two others as they turned back shocked that he left before coming to a stop to turn around and move on the traitor for turning on them. Only to be met with the rest of their foes, the only one to go down was the six armed man though, Alyssa made short work of him by attacking him from behind where he couldn't react and hit all of his chakra points with her signature tiger style fighting, when it was over, he was frozen.

The silver haired man turned back to get the coffin back only to have to dodge several kicks from Lee by backflipping away from the boy before stopping from his shadow being caught by Shikamaru, just in time to take a hit from the pair of Kiba and Akamaru in his sides. At this point Lee came back in with a large kick to the head behind the silver haired man making him knock heads with the front one causing even more disorientation, this allowed Shikamaru to unveil his new technique, the shadow strangle jutsu to strangle him.

The six armed man was still frozen, well, more like paralyzed from the numerous blows he received, so he wasn't able to react when Alyssa came up behind him with a kunai in her hands, her old self would never have done what she's about to do, but she knew she wasn't her anymore. Taking the kunai, she brought it up while also taking her left free hand and wrapping it around his forehead to steady it before cutting the neck of the six armed man open with the blade, she watched him and made sure he died from the cut before looking to the two headed man.

Shikamaru just used his new jutsu to strangle him, the guy went to stage two curse mark to try and get out of it through sheer force of physical strength, too bad he forgot about the others, so at the last second of forcing the shadow off him, he was attacked by Kiba, Akamaru, and Lee.

Lee with a primary lotus kick sending him into the combining power of Kiba and Akamaru attacking his sides, before Lee going in to finish the primary lotus in the full set, slamming his head straight into the ground and breaking his neck instantly killing him and his brain dead brother.

"Good, now that we've gotten them taken care of, let's head back and pick up Choji on the way," Shikamaru suggested as he made his way to where Zen-Aku was waiting with the coffin right next to him, it was obvious that their mission was now accomplished, enemy dead or captured.

Just as Zen-Aku was about to speak, he sensed something, "EVERYONE MOVE," he yelled before the worst happened, pillars of bone sprung from everywhere and impaled most of his team, worst of all was Alyssa with a wound in the left shoulder and right lower abdomen and grazed her arm. His worry for Alyssa took presentence over the mission so he left the coffin's side and raced to her side as fast as he could and arrived before she could fall from the trees and cradled her while bringing out his flute to play the song to help the deer heal her when she grabbed his hand.

"Don't worry about me… look behind you," Alyssa strained to say and made him turn to see a man with white hair in a loose kimono standing next to the coffin, seeing his job done for the moment, he picked up the coffin and left while carrying it away seemingly with ease. "Go… chase him… complete the mission," she ordered him while pointing in the direction they took off, she seriously wanted him to go chase after their mission goal, he took quick notice on who could do what and noticed only Lee and Shikamaru able to stand and fight.

"Shikamaru," Zen-Aku called over to the squad leader while reaching into Alyssa's pouch for the recorded device, he gave it to the boy as he arrived, "play that for her until I return, either that or until she recovers, Lee, you're with me, we're getting the damn Uchiha back." He didn't even wait for a reply before taking off, though he could tell Lee was right behind him as he chased down the soon to be dead man, they got to a clearing just as the coffin exploded, Sasuke didn't look like he used to, his hair was lighter and a little longer, his skin an unhealthy brown.

"Sasuke, we've come to take you back to the village, we beat this white haired guy and we'll be able to go," Lee stated as he got into his stance, Sasuke's response was to take off in a completely different direction than the leaf village, "where is he going, that is not the way."

"Doesn't matter, you take on the bone guy, I'm going after Uchiha, he's the cause of all of this, so he's the one that will pay," Zen-Aku ordered before making to give chase, the white haired man tried to block his path, received a Kurama sized paw for his troubles though.

Zen-Aku didn't stay back to watch Lee start the fight with the bone guy, just left with the sole focus on chasing after Sasuke, and boy did he chase him, chased him through the woods, into the mouth of a cave, it tried to trick him with memories of his past, but he pushed through them. By the time he made it out of the cave, they were at a valley with two huge stone statues across from each other, one of Madara Uchiha, the other of the first hokage, the top of Madara is where Sasuke stopped, and Zen-Aku stopped on the first hokage's.

"I suggest you come quietly, I'm in a bad mood since your new friends hurt Alyssa," Zen-Aku suggested with a growl, he saw the boy turn towards him from where he was facing the other direction, he turned slowly and let the org see the eyes, one normal, the other one not so much.

"So it's you, hopeless little knucklehead," Sasuke commented in his direction and made him growl a little bit, "she sent you huh," a moment more passed between them, "like I already told Sakura, it's over, just leave me alone," that made Zen-Aku bare his teeth like a seething animal. "Hehehe, look at you, what's with the angry face," he said with a chuckle, "or is that even an angry face, I can't tell," another chuckle and he was now signing his own death warrant, his little power trip has hurt Alyssa, so Zen-Aku was going to teach him a lesson.

"You have very few choices Sasuke," the org growled out with clenched fists, "you come back to the village willingly and we can pass this off as a power trip because of the curse mark as long as you don't do anything like this again, I won't have to come and get you, and you won't like that. You could resist, resist in a very futile manner where I reveal the secrets of my training that makes your Sharingan useless against me, I win and beat you bloody before bringing your mangled and broken body before Tsunade so she can pass judgement for desertion. The final option is that we fight, we fight until one of us drops dead, most likely you seeing as how the last time we fought I barely tried and you were trying your best, so if I actually tried with going against this new power of yours, we might be even, or I might kill you. Those are the standard options, the nonstandard option is what I'd like, you caused Alyssa to get injured really badly, so instead of fighting you and showing you how outmatched you truly are, I could just make you suffer to the point of wishing for death before release."

"I thought I warned you about acting all high and mighty, this will be nothing like when we fought before, it might be even at first, but I'll eventually win, something you'll never be able to do after today," Sasuke yelled the last part as he rushed to where the org was and made to punch his gut.

To counter, Zen-Aku grabbed the fist at the last second, just grabbed it, didn't show any signs of grabbing it either, nothing that let Sasuke even predict that he'd grab it, "I told you Uchiha, I have been training in something that makes your Sharingan useless against me." Now Sasuke actually did activate his Sharingan to aim for a right kick to the side of Zen-Aku's head, but in a flash the org grabbed it and countered with a straight high kick to the chin of the Uchiha before using the same leg to whip the boy into the face of his ancestor's statue.

The boy seemed to be stuck there in shock at not even seeing the kick coming, didn't see anything to predict what was coming, "how, I never even saw you move," Sasuke asked before jumping out of the wall and making quick hand signs, "fire style, fireball jutsu." The fireball spewed the org's way in a huge blaze thanks to the curse mark enhancement, but it wasn't enough since Zen-Aku summoned his crescent blade and sent his crescent wave to disrupt the fire with a barrage of crescent energy blades. The org unsummoned his blade as Sasuke launched himself from the water between he statues and aimed for Zen-Aku with a barrage of punches and kicks, all blocked or dodged with ease, on the last strike the org grabbed the boy's hand with his left and punched his gut with the right.

"You still haven't figured it out yet have you," he said before elbowing Sasuke's chin before striking his jaw with the same hand and sending a cocked back fist with it afterwards, a little slower pace but easy to do with such a disoriented Uchiha thanks to what he's done. The boy was sent blown back to the edge of the first's head, "I've been training to beat you since we were little, training day and night to beat the Sharingan, but I could never win against it, so I decided to delve farther into what makes it so great, I looked through everything I could. Discovered that there is no prediction of the future, it's simply reading your opponent's muscle tension, movements, breathing, and even heart rate, you use that to simply see instinctively where your opponent will strike, how to block, and the best way to counter."

Sasuke began charging again and sent his left leg to strike at Zen-Aku's jaw, but it was blocked by a simple left hand before he had to block the right leg coming down on his head with the right arm before kicking his face in from his upside down position and kicking his gut. The boy was again sent back towards the edge of the first hokage's head, he was trying to get back up, he was being shaky about it, but still rising, "what are you saying, you've actually found a way to beat the Sharingan, don't make me laugh loser," he said.

"I have actually," Zen-Aku stated and Sasuke's eyes grew wide at that, "you see, your eyes have the same weakness as any other eyes, they can't perceive what they can't see, so if you can't see muscle tension, movements, breathing, heart rate, you can't instinctively see what to do." Zen-Aku was on Sasuke faster than the boy could see with his shadow form technique, even implanting his fist into the boy's gut before Sasuke knew it, "it also helps that my body has been trained to be faster and stronger than yours, that helps with reaction speed as well." Next was a left cross aimed for Sasuke's jaw, it worked because the boy took the hit that he could do nothing to stop before being backhanded with the same hand before receiving a right knee to the gut that made the boy hunch over only to receive a right elbow to his right cheek. Zen-Aku then basically just sent a volley of punches right for Sasuke's gut, sternum, chest, and collar bone before high kicking him back towards Madara's statue, this was no longer a fight, it was more like a massacre going down, the org almost laughed at the inside joke, almost.

The physical beatdown that Sasuke was experiencing despite his power up had a different effect on him though, the trauma his body was experiencing added to his already active curse mark seemed to have reacted with his curse mark, it forced an evolution in it and gained him a tomoe. This he thought he could use to his advantage since he saw a difference in his sight, bugs seemed to have moved slower, so without really thinking, he charged at the loser and let his full instinct take over, beginning the attack with a jumping roundhouse kick that was ducked under.

Sasuke followed that up by repeatedly kicking at Zen-Aku as he blocked them all, before going in for a barrage of punches that were also blocked, however when Zen-Aku tried to attack he found the same thing was happening for him, his attacks were also blocked, meaning his eyes see more. So it was time to step up this game, so faster moves and more concentration, so when Sasuke went in for a right cross before spinning with it and roundhouse kicking him while in the air, Zen-Aku blocked them before spinning himself and trying to implant his foot in the chin of the boy. Only for it to barely graze him at the last second when the Uchiha flipped backwards, but at least he was now in perfect position to take a mule kick from the other leg that connected with the boy's face and sending him crashing to the ground for the trouble. He got up quickly enough before making some hand signs, "fire style: dragon flame jutsu," before spewing a torrent of flames form his mouth directed for the org, he dodged by flipping off the statue sideways in what looked like slow motion while sending org lightning for the boy.

Sasuke only barely dodged by jumping from the statue as well and exchanging blows with the org on the way down, and when they hit the bottom they split off and ran along the water exchanging blows as they ran, even moving away from each other several times to gain momentum when colliding. It was on the final time that they finally made it to the end of the good sized lake that was at the end of the statues, they stopped by at the far rock wall, slamming into it with enough force to make parts of it crumble before charging each other again, but Zen-Aku was done holding back. Sasuke made to do a kick in the dynamic entry style that Guy does, but it was knocked away by the org with his right hand before making it look like he was going for a left punch, when the Uchiha made to block it, he raised his foot at the last second to kick the boy in the face. This allowed him to send the punch below where he was originally aiming and into the gut of Sasuke instead of the chest, he was sent rolling across the side of the rock wall until he could right himself and started running to away to think up a good plan, he was chased for it. Sasuke used a fire style: fire ball jutsu to slow the org down, it did nothing with the chase other then making the org drop down to the water and start chasing the boy, he seemed to be going all the way back over to the statues, probably planning on using the terrain to his advantage. It was time to unveil his own technique, Zen-Aku performed the hand signs, "wind style: gale palm," before thrusting his palm forward and shooting a stream of pressurized air in Sasuke's direction, he barely dodged leading him to repeat the process until they reached the statues.

Sasuke was the first to arrive so he enacted his plan to use the chidori on Zen-Aku, using the speed of freefalling to help him, the org just kept charging at him while Sasuke hit the water sending it everywhere like a bomb going off before charging for him again with a left hand of lightning. Zen-Aku was charging with nothing protecting himself other than his dark wolf armor, but when Sasuke got right on him and was about to plunge the chidori in him, the org grabbed it at the last second and made it slam into the water instead and created a huge explosion of water. This obviously blinded the Uchiha from the onslaught of punches that Zen-Aku unleashed upon him with huge force, the same force that beat Tsunade when they had made that bet, and by the end of it, Sasuke was not in good shape by any means, had several bones broken by now at least.

"Give up Sasuke, you can't win, you should know that by now at least," Zen-Aku stated as he calmly bent down to pick the Uchiha up by the throat, "I'd actually prefer not to beat you anymore than needed, but if you continue to resist, I'll be happy to finish you off."

Sasuke gave him a look that screamed in defiance, so he was about to deliver one last punch until he was forced to let go of Sasuke and jump back to the leg of the other statue as Sasuke dropped to the ground, what forced to do so was a glowing hand that belonged to Kabuto, puppet of the snake. "Well, I never thought I'd meet you here Naruto, or is it Zen-Aku," Kabuto asked with a chakra coated hand in a ready position, his lord had told him to go help retrieve Sasuke, saying that one of the ninja there might be able to take on the sound ninja easily and take Sasuke back, so he was sent as backup.

"Kabuto, I knew that the sound must have sent a spy into the ranks of the leaf, it didn't make any sense for you to go as far as you did and then just give up either, but you can't win either you know, if the Uchiha couldn't what makes you think you can," Zen-Aku asked as he got ready.

Kabuto knew that the org had a point, even now the org's strength was growing according to their spies, so there would be a very good chance that the medical ninja couldn't take him on in a straight fight, so he opted to retreat instead, "ninja art: dead soul jutsu," he called out. He summoned two freshly made corpses that he brought and send them after him instead while he threw smoke bombs down and took Sasuke while the org was distracted, dealing with the two corpses that only barely slowed him down long enough to lose sight of them.

The corpses were dispatched by his crescent blade cutting one while the other blocked for a moment before he too was also cut up by cutting through the blade that blocked the crescent blade in the first place, when Zen-Aku turned back to attack them, only to find both gone. "Hmph, cowards, but I can't track them if I don't know which rout they took, damn that Kabuto," he growled before turning around and unsummoning his crescent blade, then he noticed Kakashi had just arrived, "took you long enough, were you all the backup Tsunade could send."

"She doesn't know I'm here, or at least she only suspects, what happened to Sasuke," Kakashi asked as he began to walk up with Pakkun the ninja hound at his side, taking note of the lack of damage to the surrounding area that he thought would be much worse.

"Gone, at the last moment he received help from Kabuto who used a distraction to escape," Zen-Aku reported almost robotically, this was really the first time he failed a mission, well, failed a mission and wasn't killed or sent back inside a mask at the end of it, he hated it.

"Sorry, I know it must be hard, this must be your first failed mission," Kakashi acknowledged sadly, the org nodded his head yes, it would be too difficult to explain the specifics, "well come on then, we should report to lady Tsunade, and on the way we'll see how Alyssa's doing."

"She got pierced in several different spots, I know how she's doing, but thanks for the sentiment," Zen-Aku left Kakashi standing there after that, he was going to check on Alyssa anyways, but he didn't need someone asking how she's doing, he was realistic person, honorable but realistic.


	8. Consequences Unforeseen

A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 8

Consequences Unforeseen

Zen-Aku and Kakashi were jumping through the forest heading in the direction of where the rest of the retrieval team were left when some medical ninja from the village was seen headed their way before turning and falling into their pace, "Kakashi, what's Zen-Aku Uzumaki's condition."

"My health is not of priority right now, what are the conditions of the rest of my squad," Zen-Aku growled out, he didn't want to deal with un-needed concern for him when the others were still in bad shape when he left, but at least the Uchiha knows where he stands in terms of power.

"Lady Tsunade dispatched the first and second medical core to pick them up, emergency treatment was administered on scene, then they were all immediately transported to the hospital," the leader of the squad answered, "only ones in good shape are Zen-Aku and Shikamaru."

"Kiba Inuzuka's injuries are serious but not life threatening, Alyssa Hyuga and Choji Akimichi are both in critical condition, though Alyssa's wounds are healing, at this point for Choji, it could go either way," the medical ninja heard a growl from the duke org and saw rage in his eyes.

"If Alyssa dies from this, then the world will have true hell to pay for the upcoming years," Zen-Aku growled out as he moved farther ahead than the rest and got back to the village in record time, going full on shadow to get to the hospital in one quick sprint as well.

He easily sensed the animal spirits inside of her and ran for her location and found a sealing room, he easily got inside and heard the healing music playing on repeat while the healing team being led by Shizune stitched her up using strands of her own hair. Thought he music was making it quite difficult to stay focused on sealing up her wounds, "Zen-Aku, you can't be in here while we're sealing her wounds, I know you're worried, but you need to leave," Shizune ordered him while not taking her eyes off of the healing.

"I just came to advise you to turn the music off while sealing up those wounds, then you can turn it back on when done, don't keep playing it if it means you can't concentrate on healing her yourselves," he said as he turned and walked out with his back straight and eyes narrow. Instead of waiting outside alone, he decided to go see Shikamaru, no doubt the boy feels too sad about his recent failure as team leader and might just quit being a ninja from it, he needed a pep talk, or a slap in the face to wake him up about failing a mission is always a possibility.

On his way he saw Anko waiting in the middle of the hallway in front of him and making him stop, "congrats on failing the mission while also possibly providing us with a useful information source wolfie, even when you fail a mission you come out with something good, how do you do it?"

"Be sure not to hurt her, she's my aunt so she will be treated as such Anko," Zen-Aku growled out as he moved past her leaving a cold chill in the air, even for her, the guy must really be in a bad mood since his girlfriend was in bad shape, it was so not a good idea to cross him, now or ever.

He began walking again, going slow as well to keep a cool head, quick movements and he might do something he'll regret, that is something that he doesn't need right now, not when Alyssa is still being taken care of just a little ways away from where he was going. He got just to where he should turn a corner when he heard the doors to the medical room open and out comes Tsunade, "he's going to be just fine," she walked forward after saying that, "the antidote worked, the extermination of cells caused from the pills effects has been rested." She stopped walking and Zen-Aku could hear a cushion move and guessed she set on a bench, "I couldn't have done it without your help, Shikaku, the Nara clan's sacred medicine guide was invaluable, the work that went into that manual, the years of research, well it's quite impressive to say the least."

Zen-Aku was smiling a bit, Choji was fine and from the sound of it, Shikaku was there to help his son his own way, good, just needed to know about Alyssa's condition, and wouldn't you know it, here comes the running footsteps of Shizune right now, he hid further into shadows to hear. "Lady Tsunade," Shizune called as she approached, "Alyssa Hyuga is safe, her condition is stabilized," that was as far as Zen-Aku needed to hear and made a mad dash to her room without waiting for Shizune to finish her report, but if he had, he would have heard different news as well.

Since he was hidden, he didn't see the look on Shizune's face, as she said that, it looked like she was sad about something and was going to say it until they heard the whooshing that cam from him moving so fast, she felt a bit down more after that, "what is it Shizune," Tsunade asked.

"Ma'am, one of the wounds suffered by Alyssa looked bad for other reasons, the bone that pierced her lower right abdomen, didn't just go through her unscathed, it tore right through part of her stomach and broke apart into smaller fragments, we got most of those fragments out in time. However there was one fragment that went in further than the rest, it was able to pierce her womb in a potent way, and since these bones seem to have come from an enemies own chakra network, the end result was it attacking the cells where it had pierced," she informed her mentor.

Shizune stopped speaking and Tsunade knew why in an instant, as did the other three in the room, Shikamaru, Shikaku, and a quiet Temari since it was her, Kankuro, and Gaara that was sent to aid the team should they be needed, Gaara even saved Lee and defeated the bone guy. When Shizune stopped talking, they knew what she was saying, "I'll notify Alyssa when she's alone, then she can decide if she wants to tell Zen-Aku or not," Tsunade stood from her seat and began walking for her room, probably just going to walk in on him playing that song for her. "Shikamaru, your mission was a failure, however everyone is alive and that's the most important thing, next time make sure things go better you're still a chunin after all," she left him at that while thinking to herself how that Orochimaru took away an entire generation of Uzumaki.

Tsunade was right, while walking to the room Alyssa was kept in, she began hearing the sound of a flute playing a beautiful song, it didn't sound like a recording either, meaning he was playing it live for her, before she got to the door she paused while thinking about that song. How many generations of Uzumaki were never going to get to hear that song, how many generations of Hyuga-Uzumaki children will never hear that song, and how much strain would this put on their relationship, they were the one couple that she hoped would last a long time. She let a single tear drop at what this means, she looked at that data on his sperm, it wasn't completely hopeless, there was enough of a chance of him giving her a child, it would be considered a miracle if it happened, but there was a chance, but now, now that hope is gone forever.

She couldn't wait though, if Alyssa was awake now, she needed to know and later she might be too busy with paperwork and other shinobi to tell her this, so she composed herself, dried her eyes and stepped into the room to see Zen-Aku playing his song over a smiling Alyssa on her back. "Good to see you're awake Alyssa," Tsunade said as if nothing was wrong, had a smile on her face as she walked over to the girl, Alyssa turned and greeted her with a smile while Zen-Aku stopped playing for a moment, "I have good news, you're going to make a full recovery."

"That's wonderful, I'd hate to stay in bed all day while my friends fight, that would just be wrong," Alyssa said with a smile, she was unknowingly making things that much harder on the Hokage, she thought about not telling the girl, but as a doctor she felt that it was only right to tell her.

"Zen-Aku, can you leave for a moment, go to my office and wait for me, I have to talk to her about private womanly matters," Tsunade requested and watched him stand there, she guessed he was raising an eyebrow behind that mask of his, he looked to Alyssa and she nodded before he left.

"What's this about lady Hokage," Alyssa asked with a worried look, "I thought you said I'll make a full recovery," she added before realization might have struck her, going by her eyes widening and then looking sad, "there was something wrong that happened wasn't there."

"First let me ask you something about that healing soul you have inside of you, and I want you to tell me the truth about this," Tsunade requested and saw Alyssa nod her head a bit meaning she'll tell what she can, "how much can the soul heal your body, what are its limits and capabilities?"

Alyssa thought for a moment about it before answering, "I don't know its full limits, but I imagine it works like any standard medical jutsu, or like Zen-Aku being healed by the nine tails, it depends on what the damage is or if the song is playing, the sooner it starts to play the faster I'm healed."

"I'm going to ask you something very serious, and if it can, than that's good news, but if it can't than I'm not sure how to tell you this," Tsunade took a deep breath and wondered how to phrase the question, "can it heal what has been done through internal damage of foreign chakra?"

This was the moment of truth, this would determine her future as a possible mother, would it crash to the ground, or will it rise and sore as high as possible, there was a moment of silence between them until Alyssa spoke, "I'm sorry, but it can't heal me to that extent, it's not a tailed beast." That was it, there would have been hope, and with it she could have held back the damn, but afterwards, the damn shattered and the tears started to fall, she lunged forward and hugged the girl close to her form as she openly cried, "what's going on, what's wrong with me?" Alyssa was crying now, Tsunade wasn't saying anything and was only crying for whatever was wrong with her, so whatever it is must be pretty bad for her not to say anything to her and just crying from the news she has to deliver, news that's making her like this.

* * *

An hour later

Tsunade finally calmed down enough to tell Alyssa the news, it wasn't good at all, the reason she was crying was because she can no longer have a child, Zen-Aku could have gotten her pregnant if they were lucky and it would be a miracle, but now, now they'll never have children. One fact cut her deeper than anything else, Zen-Aku wasn't to blame for it, he wasn't the reason they could never have children now, now it was Alyssa who was the problem, a problem that they couldn't fix with the dear zord's soul, and it was all because she couldn't react fast enough.

"Are you okay," Tsunade voiced and broke her out of her musings, she wasn't really okay, and it showed as tears continually streamed down her face, so she shook her head no and pulled the cover over herself, "I know you don't want to discuss this, but are you going to tell him?"

She went from just sobbing to shaking now, the thought of telling Zen-Aku about this, it tore her in two, she wanted to tell him the truth, tell him that they couldn't have children because of her and not him, but this might be the straw that breaks him, to make him go full org and rampage. On the other hand, if she didn't tell him and let him stay ignorant, what would happen if he heard it form someone else, if someone told him and he blamed her for not telling him when she had the chance, such a thing just couldn't happen, so what is it she's going to do?

Her musing were interrupted when a knock was heard at the door, the one behind it opened and revealed the last person Alyssa wanted to see right now, maybe not the last person, but maybe back when he was kinder, when she didn't have to hear his tone of disappointment all the time. "Lady Hokage," Hiashi Hyuga bowed respectfully to the Hokage before turning to his daughter, he saw her form hidden under the covers, "if I may have a moment alone with my daughter," at Tsunade's narrowed eyes he decided to explain, "I merely wish to talk, not cause a scene."

Tsunade kept her eyes narrowed before looking to the little Hyuga wrapped up in a blanket, hoping with all her might to not cry so much in front of her father, but failing miserably, so she decided, "fine, but try not to stress her out more than she already is, she's had enough of it."

She walked out and left the father and daughter in the room alone together, Alyssa not wanting to speak, not wanting to say something that let her voice crack in front of her father, Hiashi didn't want to say anything either, because what he should have said needed to be done long ago. "Hinata, I," this was more difficult then what he first thought, it was always his wife that dealt with this emotional stuff, not him, but he needed to do it, "I'm sorry for what I've done to you," his voice was barely over a whisper and made her stop shaking in shock at her father apologizing. "I'm sorry that I never contacted you, I'm sorry that I made you feel as though you were a failure just because you didn't use our techniques, and most of all, I'm sorry that I let Neji's hate grow so much that he did what he did to you, that never should have happened, especially the end."

Alyssa couldn't believe what she was hearing, her father was apologizing to her, apologizing to her for her boyfriend killing Neji, for making her feel like a failure for so long and letting Neji hate her so much, and the most surprising was not contacting her, he's sorry for it all. She started to pull down the covers to see a glimpse of his face, it wasn't stoic anymore, there were tears pooling at the corners of his eyes, his face wasn't stoic but frowning, his entire heart was breaking from what he put her through, she could see that just from the glimpse.

"You probably saw us that day scowling as we went into the arena and thought it was for you, it wasn't, me and your sister talked in the month during the break, we knew that you were always stronger, knew that you didn't deserve what happened to you, and we told Neji before the match. Yet, he refused to see things a different way, he believed so strongly that the gentle fist was superior to all that he lost all sense a long time ago, despite you being stronger than him when it came to your own technique, you chose to fight using ours and failed so he felt he was superior." Hiashi was openly shedding tears now, and despite this show of weakness, he didn't seem to care, "to be honest, when I heard the news that you fought using our technique, I was proud, thinking that you were finally learning our tradition, yet sad that you didn't win because you thought about us. I am so sorry that I've never visited or contacted you, sorry that you felt the need to lose a match with our style instead of fighting and winning with yours, and most of all I'm sorry that you felt that I didn't care about you, you're my daughter and I will always love you."

Alyssa couldn't take it anymore, she tore off her covers and jumped up to hug her father, hugging him tightly around his neck, he immediately hugged her back with tears still in his eyes, "I've missed you too father, I've missed you so much, and I'm sorry for thinking you didn't care."

"No Hinata, I'm sorry for letting you think that, I'm so sorry that this cold exterior of mine is what you see, what anyone ever sees, it took your mother years before she got past it, but please forgive me for not telling you this sooner," Hiashi begged his daughter, hugging her tightly.

"Only if you forgive me for thinking of you as uncaring," Hinata asked as she broke free of her father's hug, it was starting to hurt with her injuries still heeling, he nodded and let her get back in bed, "father," she stopped in front of the bed, facing away from him, "can I return home?"

Hiashi sighed at the question, it was a sad sigh filled with regret, "I'm sorry, while me and Hinabi want you back, the elders are glad to be rid of you, as is the branch family, if I let you back in the compound, I'm afraid they'll send assassins, and I just can't let you die after getting you back."

Alyssa stayed standing there for a moment before he heard a sob, "father, I have something to tell you," she really didn't want to say it out loud, it's already hard enough knowing it, but to say it, "I… I'm not able to have kids anymore," Hiashi got up turned her around to face him.

He could see the tears in a constant flow down her face, he could tell they weren't for him, they were for her, for what she lost and what she's afraid she might lose if she tells a certain someone, "don't worry Hinata, you know that he'll love you no matter what," he hugged her again, gently now. She hugged him back and held on tightly, for the first time in years, she was able to cry in her father's arms, to be consoled by her father, a much colder one than her last, a much more distant one, but for the first time in years, she finally felt like she had a father again.

* * *

Hokage's office

Zen-Aku waited there, sitting on the window sill for what seemed like an hour and a half before Tsunade finally made it in, walked in on him playing his song for the hundredth time while staring out into the sky overlooking the horizon, it was quite the sight that greeted her in the office. When he finally noticed her while he was playing, he finished the song and spoke, "I think I'll leave the village for a little while, train and grow stronger, I know I'll have at least three years before either Orochimaru or the Akatsuki can make their move, I'll use that time to train."

Tsunade walked further into the office and stood beside him watching the horizon with him, "you probably heard about Orochimaru needing three years before he could absorb Sasuke, but what makes you think the Akatsuki won't attack for three years," she asked with a side glance at him.

He held up a scroll with the seal of the Mizukage on it, "the fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, has been killed in the civil war going on in the hidden mist village, meaning that the Akatsuki won't act until the three tails has been reformed," Tsunade snatched the scroll form him.

"You should know better than to read people's mail Zen-Aku," Tsunade reprimanded before opening it and reading it for herself, "so this is just a courtesy to let us know of the change of positions, someone by the name of Mei Terumi took over and is now leading the Bloody Mist."

"Yes, as I just said, and as is the number of tails Yagura had sealed inside him, it will take the same amount of years to reform, meaning the Akatsuki can take three years to make sure they are prepared when they finally begin rounding up the rest of them," the org theorized.

"Then we better make sure everyone else is ready by the time the Akatsuki are," the sanin said as she turned around and set back down to her desk, putting the scroll down as well, "and I still can't believe that the only reason Sasuke defected was because of a lie told to him by our spy."

"Itachi knew that this was the end result the moment that he was tasked with spying on the Uchiha's planning the coup, all we need to do is take care of the rest of the Akatsuki, and after Sasuke takes care of Itachi, I'll deal with him," Zen-Aku decided, he knew it would come down to them.

"Fine, when the time comes, you'll be the one to deal with Sasuke," Tsunade said as she began to work on some more paperwork that had accumulated on her desk, "by the way, what do you think I should do with your aunt, she is still a sound ninja who worked to kill the third hokage."

"She also is still loyal to Orochimaru to an extent since her and her little sister have been taken in by him and gave them a home, but if I can turn her loyal to us, we can use her to provide us with information," Zen-Aku guessed before a knock was heard at the hokage's door.

"Enter," Tsunade ordered before someone came through, it was Anko with Tayuya following behind her, cuffed and restrained with rope, "ah, good timing, I was going to send for you two and see if there was any progress and if there was anything we could do to gain your favor."

"If you think I'll aid the fucking village that put the nine tails into both my older sister and my nephew, than you have another thing coming bitch," Tayuya sneered at her before looking to Zen-Aku, "and how were you treated, mother said that nobody knew of Kushina's status, you?"

There was a tense silence in the air after she asked him that, made even more so as the sun was beginning to lower and gave the room an eerie feeling, "I had no knowledge that they didn't know her status until now, I thought it was due to the fourth's reputation she escaped persecution."

"The way mom said it, it sounded like they didn't want anyone to know that the fourth's wife was the jinchuriki, wanted only those on the level of the first hokage to have a jinchuriki wife, damn fuckers," the music inclined ninja growled out, but, "you never answered the question."

"It was made known that I was a jinchuriki the day after their deaths, wanted me to be seen as a hero when instead I was beaten and tortured throughout the years, on birthdays it was worse, they called it fox hunts, ran me ragged around the village until they cornered me. They added to the standard beatings and tortures to also include things to humiliate me, you can guess what they did," Zen-Aku answered and Tsunade bowed her head in shame while Anko tried to keep a blank face, she was failing a bit, the one that didn't take it well was Tayuya.

"You mean this fucking cunt eating village beat you, tortured you, and who knows what else for something you couldn't control and had no idea about and yet you sick brainwashed shits are trying to get me to turn on the person who gave me and my sister a home, fuck you!"

That summed it up, except the brainwashing part, "I get you're mad, but I'm not brainwashed into liking this place, hell, after I save this village a few more times and they'll be eating out of the palm of my hands, then when I'm made hokage I can punish who wronged me."

"Then how about the rest of you then, because from what I heard, the snake skank here is scorned from being Orochimaru's first apprentice, and the old hag over there was so drowned in self-pity that she didn't think about her own godson, any explanation for that," Tayuya countered.

Tsunade sighed a sad sigh at being reminded of that time, "I have no excuse, I never thought about anyone but myself, how I was hurting, how I could make myself feel better, so I never came back to check on Zen-Aku, never once did I think about a member of my family."

Anko was next to speak, "it's not like I was blind to his troubles, but when I took a look at what they were doing to him, and how much of a load was lightened off my torment, I felt such a wait lifted at first that I didn't care, over time it became guilt, but by the time it did, it was too late. The boy was already a genin getting ready to take my second exam, and boy did he pass, took on my former sensei and even helped get his team through it afterwards, then knew the effects of the curse mark and moved for the Uchiha to get disqualified from it, I felt more guilt after that."

Tayuya didn't let up on her anger, "if you think that makes things right, you have another thing coming bitches, he should have never stayed in this village, and if I had known about him at the time, I would have begged Orochimaru to let me take him, even defied him if given the choice."

The other two women looked down to the floor in shame at her admission while Zen-Aku briefly wondered if all Uzumaki women were like this, a feeling from Kurama told him yes they were, wonderful, "you shouldn't focus on what ifs, and what should have happened," he advised.

"Not that advice, listen nephew, since I'm your aunt I get to give you advice, not the other way around, so I'll think about whatever the hell I wanna think about, now what was I dragged here for anyways, other than pointing out to these bitches what terrible people they are," she countered.

"You're here for this," Zen-Aku said before speeding to her and putting his right palm on the side of her neck, right where her curse mark was, it felt like something form her own being was being pulled out of her, must be why she screamed in pain until it was done pulling.

Tayuya hunched over to try and catch her breath, but because she was bound she could only slouch a bit while she panted, "what… the… fuck… did… you… just… do," she panted out, she really wanted to sit down or in some way catch her breath, but not with Anko holding her binds.

"I used this," the duke org held out his palm for her to read, it held the symbol for extraction glowing a soft red, "the reason that the curse mark is so dangerous and hurtful to you is the foreign soul attaching itself to yours, that's how he is able to influence you all so much."

Once she was able to catch her breath, she noticed something different, everything she just said didn't mean anything, it was like her loyalty to him was gone, there was still the feeling of debt for taking her and her sister in, but everything else was done, "where did you find that seal?"

If he was wearing a mask, she could see his wolfish smirk, "simple really, I had been combing through the family sealing books continuously, found a long forgotten one that had the basis for the curse mark design, the first ever curse mark if you will, so I used that to develop this. Now, without the soul of Orochimaru eating away at your soul, you get to use the full power of the curse mark without it eating away at you, but since the soul of Orochimaru isn't there to also take some of the load, you may need to only use it in emergencies," he advised.

Tayuya was shocked at that, if she had bothered to try and get some Uzumaki sealing scrolls, she could have done this herself, but she never thought about removing it since it let her know that she was still Orochimaru's servant, which brought a question, "where's Orochimaru's soul?"

"It's currently being devoured by the nine tailed fox, dying a slow and painful death," Zen-Aku stated seriously with an ominous feeling to it, they would have questioned him on why the fox was eating the soul, but decided against it, who knows what they talk about.

"Very well, from now on Tayuya will be a member of the T&I department, under direct orders from Anko, since she is a senior student and all, until her loyalty to Konoha is proven, she'll be under strict guard with only minimal freedoms until decided otherwise," Tsunade ordered.

"Hey bitch, I never agreed to become a member of this village, I might not be linked to Orochimaru anymore, but that doesn't mean I want to work for the same fucking village that beat my nephew, go to hell and take your offer with you," Tayuya growled out before losing consciousness.

She lost it because Anko chopped her on the back of the neck, "don't worry lady hokage, I'll make sure she understands that it wasn't an offer, you should get back to your paperwork and wolfie can visit his girlfriend, I hope she recovers soon, she hasn't finished training," she left with a grin.

"I'll leave you to the paperwork then," Zen-Aku said as left through the window in a hurry and leaving a grumbling Tsunade, 'maybe I should remind her about the uses of the clone jutsu, nah, I'll let her stew a little bit longer, she still hasn't paid for leaving me alone for so long.'

* * *

Hospital

Alyssa was sitting up in bed and waving to her father as he left, the two talked for a long time, stayed silent as well, but talked about many things, at one point Hinabi joined her, had another tearful speech as well, but it was time for them to go and leave her to heal her injuries. Thinking over all that her and her father talked about concerning what to tell Zen-Aku, forget what to tell him, how can you tell the one you love that you can't have children, how did Zen-Aku ever tell her so easily that he can't have kids, it seemed so easy for him. There was a voice in the back of her mind that kept telling her it was because he was an org with no heart, and even after sleeping in the same bed for almost a month now, and even before then snuggling under the stars while he was training for the final round, she has yet to hear a beat. Every minute that passed let the voice get louder and louder until her heart was filling her with doubt, doubt that he loved her and doubt that he could love, but was going through the motions because it was easier to work with someone you can stand than doing everything alone.

Her father helped her snuff out the voice somewhat, talking to her and telling her that he had the same look in his eyes that he often saw in the mirror thinking of her mother when they were younger, but the voice of doubt wouldn't go away, "does he truly love me," she thought out loud.

"Of course I love you," the voice of her love came to her in a growling from the window, she jumped and squeaked at his sudden appearance, she didn't even hear him opening the window, must have been so lost in thought that she didn't hear him, "how can you even think that?"

"I," there was a pause as she thought about what to say as she looked at him, there was hurt in his eyes, true hurt and a plead for her not to hurt him, a pain that she even thought that he didn't love her, "I'm sorry, I was just thinking about how easily you told me you can't have kids."

"You think it was easy for me to deny you children, to inform you that my sperm isn't compatible with a human egg, it wasn't easy Alyssa, it was anything but easy, as soon as I was told the news I knew that when I told you that you would become sad, so one of us had to console the other. Just because I no longer have a beating heart doesn't mean that I love you any less than someone that has one, I thought you'd know that," Zen-Aku said sadly, yet it had an angry growl to it, an angry growl because of her, because she was doubting his love for her.

"I do know that," she exclaimed before lowering her voice a bit, "it's just," how was Alyssa supposed to say this out loud, "I got some news about my own condition because of that attack," she paused again and bowed her head so that he couldn't see her face, how could she tell him?

Zen-Aku didn't know what to say, what news could she have gotten that meant she was reexamining their relationship, to fill her with so much doubt that she was questioning weather or not she could tell him, but than what she had said caught up to him, how he told her. "That bone caused more damage than the deer can heal, didn't it," he asked and just mentioning this news caused her to start shaking from the sobs, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes before they started streaming down her cheeks again, harder than ever before. Zen-Aku rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her as the tears flowed, "never doubt my love for you, you can tell me anything and it'll be fine," he said as he rubbed her back in a soothing way while putting another hand at the back of her neck in a tender embrace.

Alyssa began shaking more as she cried in his arms, gripping at his own arms as she started to openly weep and wail from everything going on, thankful beyond all measure that Zen-Aku was there, forgiving her for doubting him, comforting her despite this effecting him as well. Never has she been so grateful for the org's own experiences that would allow him to guess her condition, she didn't want to have to say it out loud, it was just better if he guessed it, that would be better, make it an unspoken rule of sorts not to actually say the words.

That was how Sakura found them, wanting to visit Alyssa and probably give her some flowers since that was all she could do at the moment, she was planning to go to Tsunade and ask that she be trained in the medical arts so she could finally be of some use to what's left of her team. She was about to open the door when she heard the heavy crying from Alyssa, she just cracked it open the slightest bit to see what's going on and saw her gripping at Zen-Aku's arms that were wrapped around her lovingly as she cried, hard, whatever happened to her must have been bad. She started to tear up as well, it was hard to imagine that it was her Sasuke that would cause a fellow leaf shinobi so much sadness, it was her love that would do that, so she lightly closed the door back and began walking away, determined to get stronger and become useful.

Alyssa was slowly running out of tears, very slowly, after what felt like forever for them both, which was actually just an hour of her heavy crying, her voice was becoming more horse, her throat was beginning to become sore, and the tears seemed to become less thick than before. Since she was hunching herself over her love's arms, she chose instead to cry into his chest, this time silently cry, but her shakes wouldn't go away, and even though her tears weren't as thick didn't mean that they still weren't coming out strong, there was just too much happening.

Shikamaru thought it would be a good idea to check on his fellow squad-mate after hearing the news and confirming for himself that Choji was going to be alright, he thought he saw Sakura go by Choji's room earlier, probably to see Alyssa, but he didn't know if she was still there or not. He stopped at the door as he heard muffled crying, deciding it would be better to take a peak on the situation he would be walking into, he cracked the door open and saw what was going on inside, saw the position Alyssa and Zen-Aku were in and decided not to interrupt, too troublesome.

After a good time crying into Zen-Aku's chest, Alyssa stopped shaking and just felt exhausted, she was so tired and fatigued from everything happening today, her eyes were feeling so droopy, soon she succumbed to the welcomed darkness that would allow her to be a little distracted. Zen-Aku was fine staying in that position, but she might find it uncomfortable when she woke up with an aching body, so he gently laid her down and tucked her in under the covers before quietly leaving her to get some sleep, she needed it after everything that happened today.

* * *

Two weeks later

After two weeks of staying home and just talking, a little training, studying, and just being together, it was decided that Zen-Aku should leave the village to train like he originally stated, the only problem was that he didn't want to leave Alyssa alone for that long. She reminded him that she'd be fine, her father and sister were on her side again and made sure the clan knows that since she couldn't bare a child anymore, after she dies they could burn her corpse to stop the Byakugan from getting put in enemy hands, so he shouldn't worry. She still teared up when the words child left her mouth, in fact, anything that had to do with children made her want to cry, watching children play, seeing a pregnant woman, a woman carrying her newborn baby, everything related made her want to cry for the first week. It took another three days before she could stand to go out, and another three days before she could stand children, but she teared up when she was forced to look at them and think on what she'd never have, but by the time Zen-Aku was ready to leave, she was somewhat fine.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me, it might be good to get out for a few years," Zen-Aku asked while holding Alyssa close, they were at the village gates at midnight with Tsunade, Kakashi, Tayuya, and Anko bidding him a farewell, they wanted this done as low key as possible.

"I'm sure, you're the lone wolf while I'm the noble tiger, you need some time to stretch your legs and get out of this cage, and when you do, I'll be here waiting for you," she leaned up and kissed the mouth piece of his mask, it was a rule that only she was allowed to know his face.

"You had better come back stronger than ever Zen-Aku, the Akatsuki will need to be kept in check once the three-tails reforms, and I'm sure that these three years will fly right by," Tsunade sounded sure of that, must be thinking over the past and getting depressed.

"Yeah, drinking in copious quantities can do that to ya bitch," Tayuya commented with a glare at her before being smacked in the back of the head by Anko so she could focus on the task at hand, "be good out there, I still need to hear from your own mouth what you went through, family privilege."

Zen-Aku growled at the reminder before the eyes went to Kakashi, "I just wanted to remind you to stay safe, you may be strong but there are still stronger people out there still, and be sure to send word every chance you get, and are you sure we shouldn't get master Jiraiya to go as well?"

"I'm sure, I just need to go alone and work on making myself stronger, not worry about where that pervert is, would he be in the whore house, gambling house, gambling and whore house mixed in one, street corner somewhere picking up hookers, who knows," the org mentioned.

"That sounds like hell, but it's good to see you taking your training seriously and not using that fake persona you had," Anko mentioned and the others turned to look at her, "what, just because I only started to feel guilty didn't mean I didn't watch him growing out of curiosity," she shrugged.

"Well at least you weren't wallowing in self pity like cow tits over here," Tayuya mentioned and got a slap to the back of the head from Anko before getting her head implanted in the ground by Tsunade striking the back of her head with a chakra enhanced fist, causing the ground to crack.

"We really need to teach her some manners," Tsunade mentioned as she roughly grabbed her by the back of the neck and tossed her to Anko, who caught her lazily before slinging the girl over her right shoulder, Zen-Aku and Alyssa sweat dropped at how the Uzumaki was treated.

"I think it's time to send Zen-Aku off, we want him gone so we can have some peace and quiet around here after all," Kakashi joked to lighten the mood a bit, it didn't work since Tayuya, Tsunade, and Anko glared at him, Tayuya was still asleep, but he felt the glare through her eyelids.

"As much as I hate the way it was said," Zen-Aku drawled out looking at Kakashi who eye smiled, "I really do have to get going," he turned him and Alyssa, who had not yet let go of him, away from the small gathering of people and lifted his mask to give her a kiss goodbye.

The kiss didn't last long, but it held passion behind it, and she savored every second of it since she'd not have another for three whole years, when he pulled back and put his mask back on, she put her forehead on his shoulder, "I almost want to tell you not to go, but I know you need to."

"Don't worry," he hugged her one last time before turning her to face the road he'd be traveling along, "the next time you see me coming down that road, we will both be stronger, and you will hear my song as the most beautiful thing you have ever heard, goodbye my tigress." Zen-Aku walked past her and began walking into the night with only a small duffle bag with storage scrolls in it, he brought out his flute and began to play as he walked, he played his song, and never before had Alyssa wanted to hear a song so badly as when he walked out of earshot.


End file.
